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P u b l i c a t i o n Spotlight: Small Markets—More Than a Convenience Profile: Can't Buy Me Love Changing Climate: Sequoia Hotel Renovation Plans
ISSUE SIXTY EIGHT • APRIL • 2021
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR•
Over the years we’ve had stories in Climate about people leaving the Bay Area for various reasons, the high cost of housing the major driver. Sometimes those leaving are “beneficiaries” of those high prices, able to cash in a million-dollar bungalow for a mansion just about anywhere else for half as much. This month’s feature takes a look at that subject from a wider perspective—when it’s the employers who are deciding to leave California. There have been many this year but the departure of a marquee corporation like Oracle is a jolt. Is this the beginning of a serious exodus or just part of an historic cycle? Writer Christopher J. Palermo, a local attorney who has worked with high-tech clients for 30 years, brings an informed perspective to his balanced examination of this important topic. His provocative story begins on page 8, and it’s very well worth reading. On the opposite end of the business spectrum, this month we spotlight neighborhood, or mom & pop, markets where you can duck in and buy something when you run out, or pick up a snack or a specialty item. Writer Nicholas Veronico made a thorough survey of south San Mateo County markets and highlights several for us in his story, which is on page 22. From their years teaching and being heavily involved in all things musical, Sara and Joe Murphy of Belmont may not need much introduction to a lot of people in this area. This is a remarkable and talented couple who have influenced scores of children by teaching them to sing or to play—and above all—to enjoy music. Both Sara and Joe have very interesting backgrounds, but their lives intertwined when they met in the music department at college. Scott Dailey’s Profile of two people who have been able to pursue, and share, a passion for music begins on page 16. Making beautiful music first requires things like instruments and sheet music, and in this month’s MicroClimate column we focus on where you can still buy them, as so many music stores have closed in the last couple of years. Climate’s Business Climate story is about the proposal that has been recently presented for the renovation of the Sequoia Hotel. I’d never been past the front doors before but had a chance to get a real inside tour of the aging building for the story. Time has definitely taken its toll, standards have changed, and the proposed makeover as a boutique hotel and gathering place could hardly be more dramatic. Enjoy!
Janet McGovern, Editor
April 2021 ·
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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S •
FEATU RE
The California Texodus
8
PROFILE
Can't Buy Me Love
16
On the cover: Oracle from the air: One of the many corporations leaving California for other areas.
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More than a Convenience
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MICRO CLIMATE...........20 BUSINESS CLIMATE ��������26 AROUND TOWN ���������28 HISTORY......................29
Correction:
Some data about student achievement were misstated in last month’s Profile about the principal of the East Palo Alto Academy charter high school. Sixty-five percent of current graduates are first-generation high school graduates. Seventy-two percent of 2020 graduates have enrolled in college. As of 20192020, 78 percent of graduates receiving support from the East Palo Alto Foundation were continuing to pursue college degrees.
4 · CLIMATE · April 2021
ONE LIFE’S 2021 Donate Now •
C L I M AT E •
We provide easy access to counseling, education, and opportunities to connect through service. We are so thankful for every donation we receive. One Life Counseling is here for our community. The past year was difficult due to the pandemic, many of our families are still in need now more than ever. We are grateful for your contributions of food and essential items, but we project mental health services will continue to skyrocket through 2021. The pandemic has and will continue to take a toll on the mental health of children, teens, adults and senior citizens. Mental health does not discriminate. Currently, we are providing mental health services through tele-health and in-person sessions with great success. We are available to serve anyone and everyone in San Mateo County. By participating in our Donate Now 2021 campaign, you can spread the word about mental health awareness and give back to charities like One Life Counseling Center. Your generous donation will continue to help us help others to be more direct from donor to impact. Examples of how your donations will make a difference: • $25 - Provides one hour of sliding scale group therapy • $50 – Individualized participation in Music & Memory Program for one senior • $100 – Multi-week Wellness and Self-care forum for First Responders • $250 - Changes someone’s life through 5 sliding scale individual therapy sessions • $500 - Supports Friday Food Drive by Distribution for 150 families in need • $1,500 - Sponsors a Wellness Trauma group for bilingual school-aged in a local School District
Donate Now at www.OneLifeCounselingCenter.com This ad was provided as a courtesy of
Aprilneighbors 2021 · -CLIMATE Neighbors helping since 1938· 5
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CLIMATE M A G A Z I N E S.F. Bay Media Group
Dinner & a Movie and More
Editor
In the heart of the Theatre District, Redwood City.
Publisher
Janet McGovern janet@climaterwc.com Creative Director
Jim Kirkland jim@climaterwc.com Contributing Writers
Christopher J. Palermo Nicholas A. Veronico Scott Dailey Janet McGovern Jim Clifford Photography
Jim Kirkland Editorial Board
Janet McGovern Jim Kirkland Adam Alberti Advisory Board
Dee Eva Jason Galisatus Connie Guerrero Matt Larsen Dennis Logie Clem Molony Barb Valley CLIMATE magazine is a monthly publication by S.F. Bay Media Group, a California Corporation. Entire contents ©2021 by S.F. Bay Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited. CLIMATE is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. CLIMATE offices are located at 570 El Camino Real, Ste. 150 #331 Redwood City, CA 94063. Printed in the U.S.A.
6 · CLIMATE · April 2021
Our restaurants, theatre and services are open and eager to serve you. Arya Steakhouse (650) 367-4939 Century Theatre (650) 701-1341 Chipotle Mexican Grill (650) 216-9325 Cyclismo Cafe (650) 362-3970 Dignity Health GoHealth Urgent Care (650) 381-0616 Five Guys Burgers and Fries (650) 364-3101 Marufuku Ramen (650) 257-3012 Pizza My Heart (650) 361-1010 Portobello Grill (650) 299-9918 Powerhouse Gym Elite (650) 369-6000 Sola Salon Studios www.solasalonstudios.com/locations/redwood-city Timber & Salt (650) 362-3777 Vitality Bowls (650) 568-1779 West Park Farm & Sea (650) 549-8620 2107 Broadway Street, Redwood City • shopsonbroadway.com
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Community Fund Grant Partners 2021 CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE
Welcoming the 2021 CZI Community Fund grant partners — 56 local organizations supporting Belle Haven, East Palo Alto, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Able Works Anamatangi Polynesian Voices Belle Haven Community Development Fund Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula Building Skills Partnership Casa Circulo Cultural Catholic Charities Chicana Latina Foundation Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA) Dream Volunteers East Palo Alto Academy Foundation East Palo Alto Kids Foundation Eastside College Preparatory School Ecumenical Hunger Program Faith In Action Bay Area Five Keys Schools and Programs Fresh Approach Fresh Lifelines for Youth
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Generations United Girls To Women Golden State Opportunity Healthy Cities Tutoring Heart and Soul HIP Housing International Institute of the Bay Area JobTrain Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County Live in Peace Manzanita Works Multicultural Institute New Creation Home Ministries Nuestra Casa de East Palo Alto One East Palo Alto One Life Counseling Center Pangea Legal Services Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center Peninsula Family Service Raising A Reader
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Ravenswood Family Health Network Rebuilding Together Peninsula Redwood City Friends of Literacy Redwood City PAL Retraining the Village Rosalie Rendu Center San Francisco 49ers Academy Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network Stanford Children’s Health – Teen Van St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room St. Francis Center StreetCode Academy The North Fair Oaks Community Alliance The Peninsula College Fund United through Education WeHOPE Youth Community Service Youth United for Community Action
Community Fund partners receive grants up to $100,000 and access to programming to build capacity and infrastructure, and seed collaboration to accelerate impact. CZI works in service of a just Bay Area where people impacted by systemic racism and structural inequities have the assets and power to shape their communities. Learn more at www.chanzuckerberg.com/community/fund.
April 2021 ·
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The California
Texodus
A wave of corporate departures raises concerns for Silicon Valley’s future
by Christopher J. Palermo
In December 2020, as the curtain drew closed on an extraordinary year in Silicon Valley history, the region suffered a final shock when Oracle Corporation and HP Inc. both announced the relocation of their headquarters to Austin, Texas, in quick succession. When legendary investor Peter Thiel and entrepreneur Elon Musk also disclosed that they had decamped to Texas, some political and economic observers reacted with profound concern, seeing a “red tsunami” rolling toward the Lone Star State. 8 · CLIMATE · April 2021
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Others dismissed the moves as unimportant ripples in California’s vast ocean of economic activity. Could such significant corporate flight out of the Bay Area be explained by the boisterous election cycle, in which the sharp divide in economic and policy models of Texas and California came into sharp focus? Why did California state leaders fail to foresee these exits and take steps to prevent them? Does Silicon Valley face the start of a long-term exodus and decline? How should individual cities respond? April 2021 ·
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“This is not the way to go in a strong economy, and it’s hard to tell how deep and how far it will go. Post-pandemic, all bets are off, and no one can say whether companies will continue to value California’s advantages or pursue growth elsewhere." Answers to all these questions are complex and, it turns out, have been concerns in policy circles for decades. Competition between California and Texas long predates today’s battle of sound bites between the states’ governors, Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican Greg Abbott. For progressive-minded California tech executives, Texas—formerly a slave state of the Confederacy, formerly an independent republic with a reputation for insular ruggedness, for decades solidly Republican in choices for most state and national offices—seems an odd choice to call home. Yet between 2010 and 2018, at least two dozen large California companies moved headquarters to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, or other cities, including the former Silicon Valley stalwart Raytheon. Texas was the top destination for corporate moves nationwide in 2019 and 2020. Not a New Rivalry Government professor Dr. Kenneth P. Miller of Claremont-McKenna College chronicles the states’ long rivalry in a 2020 book titled, aptly enough, “Texas vs.
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Jim Wunderman
California,” pointing out that since 1990 a surprisingly large number of companies have left California, and not all in tech: Toyota USA; Occidental Petroleum; McKesson, the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributor and sixth-largest company; Fluor Corporation and Jacobs Engineering Group, two major international design and construction firms; Charles Schwab & Co.; Jamba Juice; Omnitracs, a company that manages operations for the trucking industry; Core-Mark, a convenience store
supplier; and at least two dozen more. As important as these companies were to California, the loss of an iconic name like Hewlett-Packard, and a local landmark like Oracle, hurts even more. “I am deeply concerned about corporate flight,” said Jim Wunderman, President of the Bay Area Council, an association of local businesses formed in 1945. “This is not the way to go in a strong economy, and it’s hard to tell how deep and how far it will go. Post-pandemic, all bets are off, and no one can say whether companies will continue to value California’s advantages or pursue growth elsewhere. The decision to move a headquarters is huge for a company, and it means not only direct losses of employees, but also movement of growth and philanthropy.” According to Wunderman, the council has responded by starting to build a statewide coalition to address policy changes to improve the California business climate. While the council has not traditionally advocated for changes in state tax policy or labor policy, now those concerns loom large.
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Austin, Texas
A Cycle Repeated Countering Wunderman’s concerns is California’s remarkable overall economic resilience in the face of losses of entire industrial sectors. Oil and gas, aircraft and aerospace, auto manufacturing, and financial services all once dominated the California economy. Lockheed Missiles & Space in Sunnyvale and General Motors in Fremont once were the area’s largest employers, long before Google and Apple. But virtually all auto plants and aircraft plants have closed, energy production is weak compared to other states and continues to decline as a target of the progressive politics of Sacramento. Even semiconductor development and fabrication, which bestowed the Silicon Valley moniker on the region, have moved offshore. Is information technology the next industry that California will lose wholesale? People are right to worry, says Wunderman. “We are in a new era and the post-pandemic world will be different than the Fourth Industrial Revolution
that we thought had just started. California took 10 years to recover from the 2001 dot-com bust and lost 400,000 jobs over the next two years. We needed six to eight years to recover from the 2008 mortgage meltdown. “It is far easier to lose jobs than create them,” Wunderman continued. “We face tremendous competition from Texas and others and with remote work, it’s not clear that California’s geographical, climate, and cultural differences will win out. So why would we be our own worst enemy?” Backfilling for Losses One reason, Miller suggests, is just because the state can be. “California has seen constant reinvention in response to the loss of industries,” Miller said. “Policy makers, having seen this time and again, seem willing to stress-test the economy in ways that other states would not attempt.” Simply stated, the governor and other state leaders may think they can ignore the issue and other businesses will fill any gaps.
What’s the root cause of corporate flight? In interview after interview for this story, commentators all mentioned the same thing—housing—because when workers can’t afford to live near their employer, the business must go elsewhere to find talent. As Miller observes in “Texas vs. California,” the state housing market has become profoundly stratified—accessible for the top-paid tier of workers who can afford to buy at what would be luxury prices in any other state, somewhat available for the lowest working class who may benefit from government support or affordable projects, but virtually impossible for the middle class. No wonder city streets up and down the Peninsula are lined with recreational vehicles as drywall workers, tile installers, cooks, cleaners and other trade workers have been forced into non-traditional but affordable quarters. There’s no question that housing units have failed to keep pace with Bay Area
“We need to build what we need. We need to totally reconsider whether all existing housing regulations are appropriate. We have to create a clear path so builders don’t face endless lawsuits whenever they want to build." April 2021 ·
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job creation. In 2019 the median cost of a home in San Francisco hit $1.7 million, a stunning amount in any market. And the region has made land use choices over decades that artificially constrain supply Every acre bought and warehoused by the Peninsula Open Space Trust, for example, has become another acre on which affordable housing can’t be built. Lowering Housing Costs The mention of housing problems gets Wunderman up in arms. “We need to build what we need. We need to totally reconsider whether all existing housing regulations are appropriate. We have to create a clear path so builders don’t face endless lawsuits whenever they want to build. We’ve got to revamp cost structures to slash all the exactions and fees that impose such high costs before a shovel ever reaches the ground.” Corporate flight could benefit the housing situation, of course, by reducing demand. Renters may see a long-term decline in lease rates. Rental costs in San Francisco already have dropped about
12 · CLIMATE · April 2021
Redwood City Mayor Diane Howard
“The city has been clear that it needs more housing and less office, and more life sciences companies. The life sciences sector requires fewer employees for the same square footage, which means fewer cars and less congestion.”
15% in the past year, and while the primary effect has been employers’ long-term willingness to accept remote work and keep offices closed, job losses attributable to corporate moves will have to have some effect eventually. Meanwhile, selected Bay Area cities have adopted far more business-friendly tactics than others and have not shied away from incentivizing housing. Both Miller and Wunderman note that cities have limited options because they are incapable of directly changing tax policy or labor policy—yet they have a key role to play in creating housing, changing land use policy, and reducing rules and costs that hold up development. Redwood City Housing Redwood City Mayor Diane Howard commented that the city has seen over 2,000 residential units added in recent years and has aggressively required commercial developers to concurrently build housing units as conditions for large office projects. “We continually talk with developers about the need to build middle-income
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and lower- to very-low-income housing.” She pointed to the Sequoia Station project, which was significantly revamped when the city pushed back against the developer’s original proposal for only a small number of low-income housing units. Howard also noted that a city’s pursuit of different industry sectors can significantly affect quality of life. “The city has been clear that it needs more housing and less office, and more life sciences companies,” she said. “The life sciences sector requires fewer employees for the same square footage, which means fewer cars and less congestion.” Abbott Laboratories is a notable pharmaceuticals company with a large presence in Redwood City. Permanent Changes Even if large company departures have grabbed the headlines, Howard pointed out that small business starts have remained strong. “In 2020 we issued more business licenses than we saw businesses close,” she said. The city continues to explore several business-friendly tactics such as the permanent closures of selected downtown streets to support dining and other services and permanent outdoor parklets. In February the city held roundtable business meetings in the interest of improving dialog with business owners, resulting in strongly positive response and a request to hold similar meetings more often. “Maintaining communication appears to be the key to retaining companies in the area,” Howard said. Incentives also may help: The city is developing a “shop local” marketing campaign that appears to target consumers’ large-scale shift in basic shopping to powerhouse online sources like Amazon. While these steps sound positive, Miller noted that some cities may need to consider a far broader change in attitude, providing a reminder that pre-pandemic, San Franciscans showed a measure of
my companies like Uber to classify workers as employees rather than independent contractors, organized labor faced off against high-tech in an uncomfortable conflict between institutions that otherwise are aligned with progressive values. AB5’s author Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales, a strong ally of organized labor, escalated a personal conflict with tech sector leaders including Musk, on Twitter. In so doing, the Oceanside Democrat pitted the state’s dominant political force against one of its best-known technology leaders. Only Musk knows if a dispute of that sort catalyzed his Texas move. As the tech sector faces increasing pressure to make changes in labor policy, it may become increasingly dissatisfied with California.
Miller suggests that cities may have to become more accommodating in response to the sting of a corporate loss. outright hostility to the technology sector—protesting gentrification, changing neighborhoods and cultures. Miller suggests that cities may have to become more accommodating in response to the sting of a corporate loss. Thorny Labor Issues Beyond addressing housing costs, Miller thinks California labor policy represents the major inflection point for corporate relocation decisions. As the state attempted to advance Assembly Bill 5, to force gig-econo-
More Than Prestige at Stake The loss of a headquarters can have cascading consequences. Losses are reflected when the federal Office of Management and Budget changes the government’s list of “metropolitan statistical areas,” or MSAs. The greater the number of large employers and employees, the higher a city may rank in MSAs. Cities that can tout their position in a growing MSA can have a marketing advantage in attracting conventions, new businesses, and relations into the community. Those reclassified as “micropolitan” areas look weaker and less competitive. And several housing, transportation and Medicare reimbursement programs are tied to communities being metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, so a change designation can cause direct losses to future city budgets. And is Texas really the Western Shangri-La that Thiel, Musk, and corporate CEOs apparently believe? Two recent visits to the Austin area revealed an imperfect paradise. People in the airport, retail April 2021 ·
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Miller writes that Texas has clear cost advantages as California’s high tax rates and regulatory costs long ago became comparatively non-competitive. When California confiscates 13.4% of corporate capital gains, and Texas takes nothing, incentives to invest in Silicon Valley are diminished. stores, and other public areas reflect a friendliness, optimism, and level of community concern that seem hard to find in the hyper-competitive, locked-down, tech-focused Bay Area. But during a weeklong series of winter storms starting near Valentine’s Day this year, much of the area lost power as ice took down power lines, froze wind turbines, and burst cooling pipes across Texas. Utility regulators, who control a grid not connected to the rest of the nation, saw wholesale rates skyrocket, saddling some consumers with massive bills just for maintaining basic services. Lots of Land The supply of flat, buildable land with water is huge, so opportunities for enlarging key Lone Star cities abound. Even so, demand in Austin far outpaces supply as highly paid California workers rush in and compete for purchases. One property recently offered at an upper-middle price point received what the listing agent could only guess to be “80 to 100 offers,” leading her to advise a hapless buyer, “Don’t bother submitting another.” Lacking an extensive freeway or rail network, Austin is struggling to build out transportation options to keep pace with growth. Now the nation’s 11th largest city, in normal times Austin suffers difficult commute-hour traffic jams. It isn’t free of homelessness driven by drug culture; groups of tents and have appeared near many highway intersections and other chunks of open land. Still, Texas has succeeded in forming at least two significant clusters of related
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companies, in petrochemicals (centered in Houston) and aerospace (Dallas-Fort Worth). These clusters trace roots to the Texas oil boom of the early twentieth century, and the need for massive numbers of aircraft to fight the Second World War. And they are similar to the Silicon Valley ecosystem—exchanging labor talent over time, spurring innovation followed by spinoffs, and attracting a concentration of capital that ensures new ventures can invest in emerging technologies. If Texas can sustain two non-tech engines of industry, why not a high-tech one? Miller writes that Texas has clear cost advantages as California’s high tax rates and regulatory costs long ago became comparatively non-competitive. When California grabs 13.4% of corporate capital gains, and Texas takes nothing, incentives to invest in Silicon Valley are diminished.
our values are more important than their dollars.” So the failure of Texas to manage cultural changes could be the one way for the state to fumble the opportunity presented by corporate moves. And maybe the persistent refusal of California progressive politicians to cut taxes, reduce housing impediments, and address labor policy problems will continue to drive business movement out of state. Or, perhaps both states have a unique moment for synergy, or even that most elusive of political goals—unity. Say California’s true-blue progressives bend a little on taxes and regulations, and red-dyed Texas conservatives give a little on social issues, with the result that workers across classes achieve housing affordability and businesses draw from a broad available labor pool. The state making the best choices wins.
A Tale of Two Cultures Yet at the state level, Miller notes—in likely an understatement—"there is an imperfect fit between California tech culture and Texas statewide culture.” Others have characterized Austin progressive politics as “a blueberry floating in the tomato soup of Texas.” The cultural clash of Silicon Valley and conservative Texas came to the forefront when Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook personally lobbied the Texas legislature to kill a law confining the use of public restrooms by transgender persons to the facility associated with their birth gender, with Cook threatening to pull Apple labor relocation and capital investments. According to Miller, battles like this could cause central Texans to question “whether
Two Paths Forward Refocusing on moderation in this manner, or seeking replacement industrial clusters if December’s departures are the harbinger of a broader Silicon Valley exodus, look to be California’s main choices. For Miller and others, the loss of HP and Oracle wasn’t surprising, looking only at cost of living and cost of labor. California always will have a superior climate, great cultural amenities, and the proximity of like minds culturally and professionally. But the Golden State may have become, in the words of Elon Musk, an overconfident sports team. "If a team has been winning for too long, they do tend to get a little complacent, a little entitled, and then they don't win the championship
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anymore," Musk has said. "California has been winning for a long time... and they are taking it for granted." Leaders like Redwood City’s Mayor Howard appear dedicated to working to maintain a local edge, keeping businesses from feeling neglected or even unwanted. Without those steps, and others at the state level, more departures seem inevitable. And the moves by HP and Oracle spurred a vocal backlash: Just a day after those announcements, CEOs at Airbnb, DoorDash, and Twilio all recommitted to staying in the Bay Area, including two who acted after concerned calls from Gavin Newsom. For now, Silicon Valley is left to wonder to what extent policy emanating from Sacramento threatens the economic prosperity of the state, and to what extent California’s industrial engines will continue to generate. C Christopher J. Palermo is a Silicon Valley native who works as a patent attorney in Palo Alto and has worked with high-tech clients for 30 years.
April 2021 ·
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PROFILE•
Can’t Buy Me Love
16 · CLIMATE · April 2021
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PROFILE•
A talented couple chooses music and teaching over riches in business. By Scott Dailey
Two decades ago, Sara and Joe Murphy planned to hit it big. Newly married, they had earned their college degrees in music – a sure ticket to poverty. They had also acquired their life-insurance licenses. The prospect of building a lucrative brokerage brought visions of upper-middle-class comfort, something they had never experienced.
B
ut their affinity for music pushed back. Today, rather than motivating a sales force, they inspire audiences and a large church congregation, while influencing the lives of hundreds of school children in and around San Carlos. They’re also considered two of the area’s premier private music teachers. Their artistic and pedagogical success has come at a price. Gone are the dreams of a spread in Atherton or Woodside. Instead, the Murphys share a three-bedroom apartment off the Alameda in Belmont with their two teenaged sons, Dylan and Sean, and Joe’s 67-year-old father, Ken. All things considered, it was an easy choice. Joe, who grew up in Millbrae and San Bruno, was always working class. He drove a garbage truck and entertained restaurant patrons as a singing waiter to put himself through Cal State-Northridge in Southern California. About her own childhood, Sara, a Latina from East Los Angeles, says, “We didn’t live modestly. We were poor.” She adds, “I think sometimes maybe ignorance is bliss, not to know anything different about having wealth.” What they both had was talent. Sara, a singer whose family could never afford vocal instruction, got a scholarship after her first voice lesson at Mt. San Antonio College, a community college east of L.A. She went on to earn a master’s degree in
voice from Northridge, and finished second in the solo competition at the celebrated Choir of the World festival in Wales in 2003. Joe, an outstanding tuba player, toured internationally numerous times as a professional stand-in with the California Youth Symphony while earning his bachelor’s degree in tuba performance. Off Broadway For Sara, that first lesson was a watershed. First, it validated her future in music. But it also revealed the racial reality of musical-theater casting in the late 1990s. Sara had grown up on Broadway tunes, and dreamed of the Great White Way. Now, an unusually blunt teacher informed her that “white” was the operative word. Unless Sara wanted to spend her life playing Maria in “West Side Story,” she had better think of something else. “I went home a little shocked,” Sara admits. She had grown up highly assimilated, and spoke unaccented English. “My parents had raised me as white as possible,” she recalls. “And then my teacher said, ‘You’re Mexican.’” But her teacher had also suggested an intriguing alternative – opera, where ethnicity was far less important than the ability to master a difficult part. She gave Sara a classical April 2021 ·
CLIMATE · 17
• song to practice. Sara instantly fell in love with music that was far more challenging than the anthems of Broadway – music that might actually lead to a career. Her parents, however, weren’t convinced. Her father, a city building inspector, and her mother, a nurse, thought that Sara, one of seven children they had struggled to send to Catholic schools, should focus her college education on a real job. Sara says it wasn’t until her master’s-degree recital that they conceded, “Oh, she’s kind of good.” Music United Them Sara and Joe had met in the Northridge music department, and married in their senior year (they finished their undergraduate work in 2002). Joe, a gifted tenor as well as an instrumentalist, had wangled a spot alongside Sara in the Northridge Singers for the journey to Wales in 2003. Sara’s triumph there brought international praise and her long-awaited shot at an opera career. But throughout the trip, Sara had been feeling sick. Shortly after the festival, her host family took her to the doctor. There, she got the news that she already suspected. Dylan was born the following March. Far from crushed, Sara says she and Joe “had always talked about starting a family. I think, for me, it almost at the time seemed like a relief, because of the pressure of feeling like, ‘Okay, now I really need to make it.’” Still, she says, she’s convinced she’s always had the drive to succeed as an opera singer. At 42, she doesn’t rule out a return after Dylan and Sean are grown. Sara and Joe headed back to Southern California. Before his brief stint selling insurance, which was off to a slow start, Joe had spent two years helping part-time with school bands in La Cañada, an affluent suburb near Pasadena. Now, he got his old job back and started his teaching credential. He and Sara moved into a $700-a-month apartment in Northridge. Sara began giv-
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PROFILE•
ing voice lessons, and Joe taught brass instruments privately on the side. Thinking of herself as a performer, Sara had always resisted teaching. But Joe took to it naturally. Much of it, he believes, was his identification with the underdog. (Although he grew up on the Peninsula during the San Francisco 49ers’ Joe Montana and Steve Young years, he’s been a Detroit Lions fan since he was 12.) Valuing Improvement “Something I’ve always valued a lot is improvement, rather than the shiniest, greatest thing,” he says. “Even growing up, I thought, ‘If I coached, I’m going to give out more awards for the kids who started slowly and got fabulous, rather than the kid who was really fast the whole time.’ And then, as a teacher, that’s my favorite thing to do – to give a great grade to someone who started the year completely lost and struggling.” After eight years in Southern California, Joe yearned for the Bay Area and his own band program. In 2005, a job opened at Tierra Linda Middle School in San Carlos, and he called every day until he got an interview. The program he inherited was anything but an underdog. The daily reminders adorned the walls of the band room – plaques commemorating six consecutive years when Joe’s predecessor, Sara Lomax, and her students had brought home unanimous superior ratings – the highest possible – from local festivals. As that year’s event approached, Joe sweated like a rookie teacher. “I just wanted to keep up,” he told an interviewer from the San Carlos Patch. Increasing the ante, Lomax – who had retired after a 33-year career – had recently been named “Music Educator of the Year” by Bay Area classical radio station KDFC. But assiduous preparation paid off. At the 2006 spring festival, Tierra Linda’s two concert bands again earned unanimous superiors. The dynasty continued, and Joe mopped his forehead.
Leading the Church Choir In February of that year, Sean was born. Still teaching voice out of the Murphys’ new apartment in Belmont, Sara stayed home with the boys for another five years. She had sung in church since before she knew how to read, and had worked as a cantor in the Los Angeles Archdiocese starting at age 16. She began singing in the choir at St. Charles Catholic Church in San Carlos, where the family attended mass, and began directing the youth choir in 2011. She took over the main choir in 2012 upon the retirement of then-director Claire Giovannetti. Other opportunities followed as word spread about the Murphys’ conducting and teaching. Through a nonprofit program called Music for Minors, which provided music teachers on a contract to the San Carlos School District, Sara taught elementary and middle school. She also got involved with the San Carlos Children’s Theater, became director of all of St. Charles’s musical activities, and, this past school year, additionally started teaching kindergarten at the church’s K-8 school. Joe, meanwhile, fielded a call from the Coastal Repertory Theatre in Half Moon Bay, where he music-directed a production of “Hair.” That led to engagements at the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City, where he has been the music director for three shows (sometimes simultaneously playing drums in the orchestra pit). Both Murphys have also acted in Hillbarn productions, and for the three summers before Covid-19, Sara taught middle-schoolers in the theater’s conservatory program. Then there are the camps. Nearly a decade ago, Joe taught his students at Tierra Linda how to use Apple’s GarageBand music-composition-and-recording software. The kids responded so enthusiastically that the Murphys got the idea for a weeklong summer camp to teach digital music. Murphy Music Camps was born
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PROFILE•
Top: Joe Murphy, Tabitha Tetreault, the counselors and campers at the Murphy Music Camps' Band and Orchestra Camp. Bottom: Sara Murphy conducts the 60-member VoiceBox Choir.
in 2016, and quickly grew to include offerings for traditional band and orchestra players. (The camp was closed last summer because of Covid-19, but sessions are planned again this year.) A highlight is a music-theory contest between the band and orchestra students, which culminates in a spirited water-balloon fight. Sweeping up Awards Tabitha Tetreault, the orchestra director at Tierra Linda and the camp’s orchestra leader, is proud that her students have won the contest since the camp’s inception. At Tierra Linda since 2009, she has teamed with the Murphys to win two Sweepstakes awards from the prestigious Anaheim Heritage Festival (the honors go to the school that has the two best instrumental groups and the top choir). “They’re both fantastic musicians, and they’re both fantastic teachers,” Tetreault says. “Joe has a keen eye for creating ensemble music that is robust. As a tuba player, he really understands the concept
of balance in an ensemble (it’s an axiom among band directors that a strong sound starts with the low brass). And then Sara, with her opera background, brings that level of expertise as an opera singer to middle-school students who wouldn’t normally get that experience from a middle-school choir director.” Grace Schulz, perhaps San Carlos’s most in-demand accompanist, has lent her pianistic skills to the Murphys’ students on scores of occasions since 2005. Like Tetreault, she has also played for Joe at the Hillbarn Theatre. “They’re both so passionate,” Schulz says. “They’re great at being excited about the music that they’re presenting to the students.” Another local musician, Margaret Genovese of San Carlos, performs with the San Francisco Opera and sings in Sara’s St. Charles choir. She considers Sara “a joy to work with,” adding that she “has a wonderful voice, and is very versatile.” For both Murphys, that versatility ex-
tends to more than music. Running the camp means operating a small business, and Sara’s prowess at juggling her schedule recently caught the attention of an executive who mentioned that personal assistants in Silicon Valley were earning more than $150,000 a year. Joe, too, has received feelers to trade teaching for greater pay and prestige in tech. Tempting as it is, they’re sticking to their musical dreams, at least for now. Joe still enjoys fueling the powerhouse at Tierra Linda, even with the frustrations of teaching online during the pandemic. As for Sara, lyric sopranos flower in their forties and fifties. She’s kept her voice in shape and is mulling a possible re-set someday, perhaps with a small opera company in Europe or South America. “It has been my passion,” she says, speaking as much for Joe as for herself. “I always knew this was the talent that had been given to me. I’ve always wanted music in some form or fashion.” C April 2021 ·
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Couple Improvises to Keep Their Music Store Ticking Despite Closures Every day it seems another well-loved local retailer has closed, weakened first by online shopping and, for the past year, the restrictions that came in response to the Covid pandemic. That’s been true of independent music stores in San Mateo County where musicians and wannabe musicians could try out instruments, be it woodwinds or brass, or thumb through sheet music or piano books. Bronstein’s in South San Francisco moved from Grand Avenue and scaled back. Bridgepoint Music in Menlo Park does rentals now. Wollmer’s Music in San Mateo closed in 2016 after 83 years in business, a victim of rising rents and online competition. Brian and Susan Kimmel, the proprietors of Clock Tower Music on Laurel Street in San Carlos, have managed to get through the past year and are hopeful as restrictions ease up that things will get back to normal. “Before the Covid thing, I could say we were on a path,” Brian says. “We were really moving forward well. We had a lot of business. All of our lesson rooms were full.” Pre-Covid, “Every half hour as everyone was rotating, there was a constant flow of people.” Kids hung out listening to an older sibling play, while the parents could go shopping. “It was really a community that was growing and growing. It felt like we were really having a good momentum at that time. But when Covid hit, everybody had to reinvent the wheel.” The musicians who give lessons in Clock Tower’s five studios had to scramble, buying a web cam, getting a microphone and upgrading computers and Wi-Fi to offer lessons remotely—on Zoom. Two teachers decided to retire; the roster now is down to eight, counting Brian. Teachers get students referrals from the store,
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Clock Tower Music's Susan and Brian Kimmel with their dog Jack.
and teachers pay studio rent. The Kimmels are grateful that their teachers have continued to do so, even though they’ve been working at home. Brian was able to pick up some remote teaching when he was hired for a month to give San Carlos School District students saxophone lessons via Zoom, showing kids how to put a reed on, get started and make a decent sound. Normally, Clock Tower rents out 400 instruments a year; this year it’s “way less than 200” since kids aren’t in school. On the other hand, the repair business has picked up bigly. The Kimmels also spent hours and hours scanning and writing to post their merchandise online, but since a small shop doesn’t buy in bulk, the profit margin is slim. The Internet may be useful for showcasing inventory, but it’s the personal touch and customer service that distinguishes a Clock Tower from an Amazon. The music store actually got its start (and its name) in Half Moon Bay when
Brian’s father, who was a jazz musician, opened a store in 1983 in the Clock Tower Building at Shoreline Station. Brian, now 50, worked there after school, and continued to help out and learn the business after his father relocated it to Laurel Street in 1992, to reach a larger customer base and be closer to musicians. Alex Kimmel was more of a hobbyist than a businessman and Brian—who majored in business in college—bought Clock Tower from his dad in 1994. Brian worked there days and at SportsMart at night to dig out of a financial hole and turn it into a serious enterprise. Susan had grown up in San Carlos but not playing music. The day her path crossed Clock Tower’s she’d just signed divorce papers, was walking down Laurel Street and happened to see the store’s sign. Taking up the guitar, she thought, would be a great way “to say good-bye to my ex and start a new life.” Susan took lessons from a different teacher but eventually got to know the man she would marry in 2007. At the store, she learned on the job and is responsible for billing, customer contact, and Clock Tower’s extensive line of gift items, such as instrument-shaped Christmas ornaments, socks, toys and so forth. She also orders the music books and knows them well enough to recommend the right ones based on skill level. About five years ago, Susan organized what had become a popular “house concerts” series featuring singer-songwriters— also currently nixed because of Covid restrictions. They also had to halt the group guitar lessons that brought adult students—in their business suits—to the store after work to strum and improvise. “Running a small shop takes a lot of time,” Brian observes. “Like if I sit for a while, I feel guilty, because I know there’s something I should be doing.” Challeng-
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ing as the year has been, any musician can attest that there’s no substitute for being able to browse in a music store and ask questions. The Kimmels are heartened to see foot traffic is picking up and with it the chance to deliver customer service. Brian plays saxophone, guitar, bass, ukulele and drums. Though online teaching has its place, it’s a tough way to learn and to keep motivated—and doesn’t deliver the “collective high” from playing with other people. “As soon as you can tap somebody into that, you’ve got them for life,” he says. “But if they feel like they’re not part of the instrument and they’re just struggling to carry a song and they don’t get that experience from doing it, then it’s hard to keep somebody interested.”
online—such as providing coloring books and games for kids; association President Mitch Postel may present some webinars. The goal, says Board of Directors member Dee Eva, is to get each city to do its own celebration of becoming part of the county on May 12 next year.
On May 12, it will be 165 years since “San Mateo” and “County” became one, and the historical association will be trying to muster support for celebrations in each of the cities a year from then. May 12, 1856, is the date when the first election was held to form San Mateo County. Association representatives will ask the Board of Supervisors May 4 to declare May 12 “Happy San Mateo County Day” to highlight its history and culture. Celebration planning is just getting off the ground, and this year’s festivities will be low-key and/or
velopment would include three multi-story structures with a combined 765,100 square feet of space suitable for life science or tech tenants.. Jay Paul would assist in the ice rink design and construction management, and the foundation would be responsible for the facility and ongoing operations, according to a press release about the proposal. Not long ago there were three ice rinks on the mid-Peninsula but with the closures of Belmont Iceland and the Nazareth Ice Rink in Redwood City, only one
The local ice-skating community is partnering with the developer of the proposed Harbor View project to build and operate a new rink. The Malibu Ice Center would be built on the site of the former Mailbu Grand Prix raceway on two acres owned by the Jay Paul Co., which will be providing it on a “nominal” value long-term lease to the Mid-Peninsula Ice Rink Foundation. Jay Paul’s Harbor View office complex de-
remains, at Bridgepoint Shopping Center in San Mateo. “Jay Paul’s willingness to donate the two acres of land necessary to develop a state-of-the-art ice rink in Redwood City to MIRF is a game-changer for the local ice-skating community, we couldn’t be happier,” said Tim Hennessey, a member of the foundation board. Harbor View is currently negotiating the terms of the largest Development Agreement Redwood City has entered into, valued at approximately $55 millionMalibu Ice and the associated endowment program are valued at over $19 million of that contribution. Janette D’Elia, Jay Paul’s Chief Operating Officer, says company officials are “ecstatic” to announce the partnership that will “add a marquee community facility to our proposal, include family entertainment and help the city meet the recreational needs of its residents and youth who currently have no rink access. We believe that this facility, combined with our commitment to encourage diversity, equity and inclusionary access to the rink, will truly offer something for everyone in Redwood City, regardless of income or ability.” Adam Alberti, the publisher of Climate Magazine, is Managing Director at Singer Associates, Inc. The Jay Paul Company is represented by Singer Associates.
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SPOTLIGHT•
“Our advantage is that we offer fresh meals to go from our taqueria, fresh meat and pastries, groceries, beverages, and beer, as well as check cashing and money transfer services.” Mario Patino
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SPOTLIGHT•
Neighborhood Groceries:
More than a Convenience
Through changing times, still a large need for small markets
By Nicholas A. Veronico
Step through the doors into Redwood City’s Willow Market and the mouth-watering aroma of simmering carnitas introduces just one of the items that gives this market near Five Points a distinct niche. No matter how thick someone’s Covid mask may be, the delicious scent of slow-cooking pork is a powerful sensory overlay on a quick trip to the neighborhood market.
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he Willow Market y Carniceria is one of 12 small markets within the area from San Carlos to Menlo Park, each trying to offer customers something more than just convenience. Neighborhood markets stock essential food and snacks, as well as toiletries and household supplies, along with beverages – often including beer, wine, and liquor. Set within neighborhoods and often on lesstraveled paths, these markets are the original convenience stores and fit between the ubiquitous 7-Elevens and gas stations with mini-markets and the big box grocers or supermarkets such as Lucky, Safeway and Whole Foods. Though the Willow Market is located one block north of the Target store on El Camino Real, the big box retailer has had virtually no impact on his business, according to proprietor Mario Patino. Target began selling groceries in 2003, but the large retailer does not offer the specialty items Willow Market’s clientele has come to expect.
Shop and Eat “Our advantage is that we offer fresh meals to go from our taqueria, fresh meat and pastries, groceries, beverages, and beer, as well as check cashing and money transfer services,” Patino said. “Many of our customers will cash their checks and grocery shop here in the same visit.” In fact, he added, business has increased 20 percent due to Covid. As neighborhoods evolve, the markets have adapted to changing clientele and changing tastes. The Vera Cash Market at 400 Vera Ave. in Redwood City began as a market approximately 125 years ago to serve the needs of workers employed at the nearby Beeger Tannery. The tannery was located on the corner of El Camino Real and Maple Street, and many of its employees lived in the surrounding neighborhood. “Every two months the neighborhood changes. People move away, new people come, and old people move back,” store manager Freddy Luna said. “It has been that way for more than 100 years.”
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SPOTLIGHT•
“I work for the people. I have to take care of them. It’s the same whether they are spending a penny or $100." Freddy Luna On the west wall above the market’s liquor shelves are brand mirrors and other advertising memorabilia along with an antique neon Belfast Sparkling Water clock —showcasing but a few decades of changing merchandise. From behind the counter below, Luna greets his customers. Luna’s Neighborhood He began working in his family’s grocery in San Francisco and came to the Vera market in 2001. Luna has lived in the neighborhood for 19 of the past 20 years and is a fixture in the community where he raised his family. People know him, and he’s built a strong rapport with his clientele. Every few minutes, there’s a constant stream of customers, each engaging Luna in friendly banter both in English and Spanish. “When I was learning the grocery business, I didn’t speak a lot of English,” Luna said, “but my boss at the time told me to learn faces because people are creatures of habit and they buy the same things dayin and day-out.” As if to illustrate, the next moment a woman walked into the store. Luna saw her, turned around, and had a pack of her brand of cigarettes in his hand with a book of matches before she could even approach the counter to make her request. It was a wordless transaction: just a nod, a warm smile, and she was on her way. 24 · CLIMATE · April 2021
“I work for the people. I have to take care of them. It’s the same whether they are spending a penny or $100. Some people may come in sad, and I’ll recognize that. We talk for a little, and they often leave happier than when they came in,” Luna said. Adding Benefit Aside from the convenience they offer, neighborhood markets have a positive, albeit less obvious, impact on their community. Willow Market employs 10, and that’s 10 people who, while providing essential services, kept their jobs and did not end up in the unemployment line. In addition, the market’s reach is, in one way, worldwide. “Ninety-nine percent of our clientele are Hispanic, and many are sending money to relatives back in Mexico,” said the Willow Market’s Patino. “The Covidrelated increase in sales has also given us the opportunity to reinvest in our business and that investment provides jobs to others. We’re upgrading the meals we offer and buying new kitchen equipment to improve our preparation times and better serve our customers.” At Bonfare Market on Oak Knoll Drive in Emerald Hills, Covid restrictions have impacted customer traffic. “Covid reduced our morning business as we had
to stop our coffee service,” said Blaize Touchatt, store manager. The market’s coffee was self-service with hand pump urns, which are not allowed because of the personal contact with the handles. “During a normal day shift, I still see about 100 regular customers from the neighborhood plus those who come to the area working in construction. In this job you get to know people, learn their habits, and care about their well-being,” Touchatt said. “Customers love our deli, which also had to close during the pandemic, but it will be back soon.” Going Above and Beyond Bob’s Country Corner, located on Alameda de las Pulgas in Menlo Park, took steps to safeguard its customers and staff as Covid-19 went from a sickness a world away to a global pandemic. “My brother is extremely health conscious and we were both terrified about the pandemic. In January and February of last year, there was not enough information coming out, and all one could do was expect the worst,” said Issa Wehab, who, along with his wife Amal, run the afternoon and closing shifts of the family-owned market. Matriarch Nadia and eldest son David open and get the store ready for the day. “Before the mask mandate, we started enforcing our own rules in the store,
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“At the height of the pandemic, I was going twice a day to get flour.” Issa Wehab limiting it to only eight customers inside. We tried to recommend masks to our customers, but we got a lot of push-back,” Issa Wehab said. “Once the mask mandate was enacted, people eased up on us. The majority of our customers understood why we were being so cautious. This store supports our entire family; I’ve got to keep us safe and maintain a welcoming environment, yet one of safety and health where people feel comfortable to shop.” Social media played a big role in getting essential supplies to his West Menlo Park area customers. The market initially used Instagram to communicate which essentials were in stock, such as paper towels and toilet paper. Issa and Amal Wehab got up early and drove to wholesalers searching for toilet paper, sanitary wipes, and hand sanitizer. They had to be first in line if they stood a chance at buying any inventory. Sometimes they would send out two updates a day
depending on what shipments came in. “Before the pandemic, we would never sell through a case of flour in less than two months,” Issa Wehab said. “At the height of the pandemic, I was going twice a day to get flour.” Making an Exception Although Bob’s Country Market does not offer delivery, the store had a number of elderly customers who could not get out during the height of the pandemic, so Issa Wehab delivered staples like bread, eggs and milk, as well as hand sanitizer to them. Once the pandemic leveled off, business slowed. “We didn’t have supplies, couldn’t get supplies, and people were afraid to leave their houses,” Wehab said. “Little by little customers from the neighborhood started to come back for essentials, but the gardeners and contractors that are our breakfast and lunch rushes dried up. They could not work,
so they were not in the neighborhood, and business went downhill. Once the tradespeople were allowed to go back to work, business began to pick up again.” The Wehab family’s latest Covidrelated challenge is because of social distancing. Customers on a tight lunch hour may see a line of people outside the store and decide not to stop on the mistaken assumption that the store is packed. In reality, there’s no one inside the store for social distancing reasons. “We’re encouraging customers to place their deli sandwich orders before 11:30 so they can just walk in and pick up their sandwiches and be on their way,” Wehab said. Though they have to adapt to survive, proprietors of mom-and-pop markets strive to remain essential to the neighborhoods they serve. In the words of Vera Cash Market’s Freddy Luna, “It’s all about the people.” C
Neighborhood Groceries Redwood City Bonfare Market 3215 Oak Knoll Dr., Emerald Hills Chavez Supermarket 775 Arguello St. Redwood City Food Stop Market 916 Whipple Ave, Redwood City
The Ideal Store 3375 E. Bayshore Rd., Redwood City
Vera Cash Market 400 Vera Ave., Redwood City
The Willows Market 60 Middlefield Road
La Estrellita 2205 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City
Willow Market Y Carniceria 37 Willow St., Redwood City
Pena Meat & Food Market 3198 Middlefield Road, Redwood City
Menlo Park Country Corner 3207 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo Park
San Carlos Devonshire Little Store 20 Devonshire Blvd, San Carlos
Redwood Mini Market 2775 El Camino Real, Redwood City
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Renovation Proposal Would Restore Historic Sequoia Hotel By Janet McGovern Alyn T. Beals realized a dream about 10 years ago when he became one of the owners of a building he’d admired since he was a small boy. Riding in Redwood City’s Fourth of July Parade past the Sequoia Hotel, the child—and future commercial contractor—told the grown-ups in the car that someday he’d like to own the place. Beals got that wish all right, along with one of the biggest challenges in his 53 years in construction. In late February, the partnership he and his wife Dani Gasparini manage presented the city with a proposal to redevelop the 109-year-old city landmark, currently a single-room-occupancy hotel. They’d keep the exterior, build a supporting structure inside it, and add a basement and four new floors above, plus a restaurant, wine room and rooftop terrace and bar. All on a 100-by-100-foot square footprint. “It’s complicated,” Beals says. “It’s almost like building in Manhattan or building in downtown San Francisco. It’s tight quarters.” That’s just the engineering and construction elements of the project, which will also involve obtaining two critical variances, providing relocation assistance to the hotel’s 17 current residents—and riding the economic waves as corporate life and travel patterns shift in a post-Covid environment. Whither Corporate Travel? “Now you can’t fill rooms,” says Beals, who knows whereof he speaks, having built a hotel in Sunnyvale 35 years ago. “So the big challenge is, where’s corporate travel going to be in three years?
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“And by the same token (with) the office market in flux, there’s so many questions right now,” he continues. “They’ll be answered as we go through the process.” He grew up in Redwood City the son of San Francisco 49er Alyn Beals, who had moved the family to town in 1949 and then, along with his wife, got very involved in community life. The football celebrity, who got into real estate, joined the Kiwanis Club and served for decades on the Parks and Recreation Commission. Betty Beals was PTA president at Lincoln School, where “Little Al” attended. One year, father and son got to ride in the Independence Day Parade in the back seat of an antique Cadillac driven by Bob Frank, a local attorney who owned the hotel. Beals remembers his long-ago real estate epiphany this way: “We went by the Sequoia Hotel, and Bob said, ‘Little Al. This is my hotel.’ And I looked at it and I said something like, ‘Well I’d like to own it someday.’” CEO of the Beals Martin, Inc. commercial contracting company he co-founded in 1973, Beals for all those years kept inquiring about the Sequoia Hotel. When it became available after Frank’s death, representatives of the family trust offered it to him, according to Gasparini. The couple assembled a group of investor friends for the
Sequoia Main LLC. (Mayor Diane Howard and her husband, Steve, at one time were part of the partnership but have sold their interest. Six partners remain, Beals and Gasparini the largest single owners and the managing partners.) Beals was determined that the property should be restored and redeveloped as a luxury hotel. A first-class hotel, in fact, is how the Sequoia Hotel presented itself when the doors of the grand establishment opened to guests in 1913. Every two rooms had a bath with hot and cold running water, and there were public restrooms on every floor. At least three comfortable parlors offered space for meetings and social events. The city designated the hotel a historic landmark in 1981, as the only survivor of a grand era “when several impressive hotels graced the area around Main and Broadway.” Impressive it is no more, but the architects have presented concepts designed to regain that long-lost cachet. Raising the Roof An additional four stories would rise above the three-story hotel, which currently has 53 rooms. That number would increase to 82 and the total square footage to 71,500. The concept allows for retail on the ground floor, a restaurant and a bar, as
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A rendering of the proposed remodel of the Sequoia Hotel.
well as another bar on an outdoor rooftop terrace. Once again, the hotel would have meeting space. Two variances to the city’s Downtown Precise Plan rules which apply to historic properties would be needed. One is to raise the height limit (the new hotel would be about 79 feet high) and the other to eliminate a 40-foot setback requirement from the building. Because the hotel is on the corner and the setback counts from both sides, “We would end up with a 10,000-squarefoot postage stamp on the top floor,” Gasparini says. The hotel has no parking now and none would be added. Gasparini says it’s anticipated that weekday business travelers wouldn’t come in their own cars. The partners have leased 25 weekend spaces in the underground garage of a project proposed for the Wells Fargo Bank site across the street. A basement would have to be dug out to allow for an elevator and for the heating and air conditioning, electrical, sewer and other essential systems. Preserving the red brick exterior—much of which has been painted over—is a priority for Beals and Gasparini, who are experimenting with how to get the paint off but save the brick, a very costly undertaking.
A concrete wall would be poured inside the existing hotel for the basement and the first three floors, and the exterior would become a decorative façade, not supporting the new upper levels. The construction will have to be done by going through an alleyway on the back side of the hotel. “It’s very difficult because we have to preserve the bricks that are unreinforced,” Beals says. “Unreinforced masonry means there’s no reinforcing seal and there’s just bricks on top of bricks. It’s amazing that it hasn’t fallen down already since 1912.” Notice to Tenants There are five retail tenants, including Ralph’s Vacuum & Sewing Center and Gambrel & Co. butchers. All have known since they first rented space of the owners’ intentions, and they’ll get six months’ notice before they have to move, according to Beals. By law, the owners are required to offer relocation assistance to the residential tenants, some of whom have called the hotel home for 10 years or more. The partners have retained a relocation specialist to help tenants locate options and put plans together. At Gasparini’s request, City Coun-
cilmember Diana Reddy, who is a tenant advocate, came to a March 4 meeting and offered the residents her personal help. Gasparini says the tenants pay $700 to $850 a month and haven’t had a rent increase since the partnership bought the building. A typical room has space for a double bed and chest of drawers, a small closet and an adjacent bathroom. Tenants will likely need to find subsidized housing, which is why it’s important to get on waiting lists now, Gasparini says. A couple of tenants said they would just like to accept a check and go. “The goal is to understand what their objectives and their goals are and try to devise a plan to help them get there,” she says. “And at the end of the day, we have a financial responsibility to help them get there.” Depending on what’s required, Gasparini says the owners figure the approvals process could take 18 to 24 months She too grew up in Redwood City, became the executive director of the YMCA right out of college and is a former mayor. The couple wants to be able to incorporate elements of the city’s history into the hotel, using local chefs and products. The rooftop bar might be named “The Eureka,” after the Eureka Brewery which preceded the Sequoia Hotel on the site. “Did we buy the property so it might be a Holiday Inn? No,” she says. “We bought the hotel because we wanted to bring something of great value to Redwood City—and we also wanted to honor the design.” “I want to be proud of it,” Beals adds. “I’ve got a lot personally riding on it. I just feel confident that it’s just what downtown needs—and do it right.” C
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AROUND TOWN•
Chan Zuckerberg Lights the Way The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative lit its headquarters building in downtown Redwood City in blue, green, and pink for rare disease awareness and in recognition of Rare Disease Month — alongside dozens of other landmarks across the globe for the month of February. The rare disease community comes together to raise awareness about rare diseases, their impact on patients’ lives, and the urgent push to find treatments and cures. Rare Disease Month culminates in Rare Disease Day on the last day of February — the rarest day of the year.
Museum Free Friday Returns The San Mateo County Historical Association opened its San Mateo County History Museum and two historic sites, the Woodside Store and Sanchez Adobe on March 24. The San Mateo County History Museum is located at 2200 Broadway within the 111-year old “Old Courthouse” in Redwood City. It features exhibits related to the use of natural resources, suburban development, ethnic experience and entrepreneurial achievement on the Peninsula from the time of the Ohlone Indian through today. The Museum will resume its hours, every day except Monday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Woodside Store is located at 3300 Tripp Road in Woodside. Built in 1854, it operated as a country store, post office and community center until the 1909 death of its owner, Dr. R.O. Tripp. It will resume its hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m.- 4 p.m. (Note: these are reduced hours to allow for extra cleaning time.) The Sanchez Adobe is located at 1000 Linda Mar Boulevard in Pacifica. Francisco Sanchez, owner of Rancho San Pedro and one-time mayor of San Francisco, constructed his adobe home between 1842 and 1846. It will resume its hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
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The San Mateo County History Museum
The Sanchez Adobe
The Woodside Store
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HISTORY by Jim Clifford•
Back to the Future in a Ferry Boat Redwood City could become a port of call for ferry boats carrying commuters to San Francisco and Oakland, according to a recent feasibility study which brought back visions of a time when San Francisco Bay boasted one of the largest ferry systems in the world, one that reached an annual ridership of 50 million during the 1930s. The hub of the system was the Ferry Building in San Francisco, which was the destination of as many as 50,000 riders a day. According to the Bay Crossings website, ferries made 340 arrivals and departures daily. Service was so frequent and dependable that streetcars pulled up to the Ferry Building every 20 seconds until the openings of the Golden Gate and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges marked the beginning of the end. The Ferry Building and its distinctive 245-foot clock tower, which newspaper columnist Herb Caen christened “San Francisco’s most famous landmark,” still stands, having survived two major earthquakes relatively undamaged because of its unusual, elongated construction. Another remnant of the once dominant travel system is the ferry boat Eureka, now a tourist attraction at the National Park Service’s Hyde Street Pier maritime park at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The Largest Ferry The Eureka had a seating capacity of 2,300, making it the largest passenger ferry in the world, according to John Kemble’s excellent book “San Francisco Bay.” The Eureka, at nearly 300 feet, is billed as the longest wooden hulled vessel afloat. To the truly dedicated ferry fan, the Eureka is famous for being the last of the walking beam ferries. The vessel’s retirement in 1956 ended the use of giant ferry boats on San Francisco Bay. For a glimpse
The Eureka
of what it was like to travel on a ferry between Oakland and San Francisco catch the opening scenes of the 1957 movie “Pal Joey,” a musical starring Frank Sinatra. In an article written for the Journal of Local History, the late Kathleen Wade of Redwood City recounted her days sailing on the ferries during the 1920s and 1930s. “Ferry rides were a great time to relax, read the news, or walk the decks and take in the views,” she wrote. “Some of our family were daily commuters.” Wade’s sister used her time aboard the ferry to study for classes at the University of California in Berkeley. Wade wrote that one of the highlights of the voyage was seeing the “main engine in motion and watching the big rocker arms pumping up and down,” a possible reference to the aforementioned “walking beam.” All of Wade’s trips weren’t so pleasant. “I still have a vivid memory of our ferry collision in 1937” when “structure, timber, and broken glass went flying. The few sitting next to the windows had jumped away, but still got cut by flying glass fragments and needed emergency treatment. It was a frightening experience, but, on the other hand, it could have been much worse.” Collisions on the Bay In Wade’s telling, she was aboard the ferry Vallejo, which she thought was struck by the Eureka. However, the National Park Service’s Lynn Cullivan reported she has no record of such an accident. How-
ever, she said the Eureka did collide with the ferry Golden West on September 19, 1936. The San Francisco Chronicle had a front page story under the headline “Woman hurt. 100s shaken.” The newspaper account reads very much like Wade’s. The most famous ferry boat crash took place on a foggy November night in 1909 when the Sausalito and San Rafael collided, killing three people. The accident inspired the ferry boat collision depicted in the opening stages of Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf.” In addition to jogging our collective memories about the old ferry system, the earlier noted feasibility study by the engineering firm of CDM Smith conjured up a time when the Bay served the same purpose as today’s roadways. The study envisions a day when Redwood City would become part of the Water Emergency Transportation Authority which operates ferries linking Bay ports. In addition to San Francisco and Oakland, the highspeed vessels link South San Francisco, Alameda, Richmond and Vallejo. There was a time when those cities were stops for fleets of boats that carried just about any kind of cargo. There is only one of those vessels left. It’s the scow schooner Alma, preserved at, you guessed it, the Hyde Street Maritime Park in San Francisco. There is nothing fancy about the flat-bottomed Alma, but it carries a cargo of history. “Between 1850 and the early years of the 20th century, the best highways around the San Francisco Bay Area were the waterways, and the delivery trucks and the tractor-trailer rigs of those days were the scow schooners,” the Park Service wrote in a history of the Alma. C April 2021 ·
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TOGETHER, WE DESIGN PLACES THAT INSPIRE PEOPLE
851 MAIN STREET
30 · CLIMATE · April 2021
Hidden
The Redwood City Downtown • C L I M A T E
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Ralphs Vacuum & Sewing Center !
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Well folks, we moved. Sort of. For the time being we will be located at 2011 Broadway until our new super store at Woodside Plaza is completed. So stay tuned — and stay safe! • Sales & Service • Bags, Belts & Filters • Sewing Classes
2011 Broadway • 650-368-2841 • ralphsvacnsew.com
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Gems
Business Group Presents
Locally grown, Organically raised
Proud member of the historical Redwood City Woman's Club DRE 01886755 cell: 650.430.8220 office: 650.556.8674 www.kathyzmay.com email: kathyzmay@gmail.com 1629 Main St., Redwood City
SUE LEHR MITCHELL Realtor
®
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
650.619.9311 suelehrmitchell@gmail.com suelehrmitchell.com DRE# 01087715
SPONSOR AND CHAIR, HOMETOWN HOLIDAYS
Original Oil Paintings by J. Ennis Kirkland www.jennis-kirkland.squarespace.com
Downtown Redwood City Office located at 555 Middlefield Rd. Each office is independently owned and operated.
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D
avies
APPLIANCE
The Davies Family has been doing business on the same block since 1916
Shop where designers, architects & contractors shop Always honest competitive pricing, industry wide selection and extraordinary assistance to guide you to your perfect kitchen, laundry or outdoor living space.
We have a full showroom of top name barbeques
daviesappliance.com • (650) 366-5728 • 1580 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA 94063 Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 8:30am - 6pm • Friday & Saturday 8:30am - 5pm • Closed Sunday/Monday