FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2013
Google grub crawl Tech giant cuisine tour delights with delicious, sustainable fare around every corner
HIGH SCHOOL URBAN JOURNALISM WORKSHOP
BY KATIE MARTIN Mosaic Staff Writer Never be more than 150 feet away from food. This statement, according to one Google employee, most accurately describes the mindset regarding cuisine at the technology giant. Known for creating a search engine so ingrained in our society it’s now used as a noun and a verb, the food offerings at Google have become similarly legendary among Silicon Valley’s tech junkies. Organized, clean and beautiful in their simplicity, the 31 cafés and numerous “micro-kitchens” offer an eclectic menu that spans almost every culture and can satisfy even the pickiest eater. Google has long prided itself on its devotion to serving sustainably produced and locally grown food to its employees. Now, with nearly 18,000 employees at the Mountain View campus alone, Google offers food for free, even allowing workers to bring in a certain number of guests each month to eat in the cafeterias.
Kelly Chang | Mosaic Staff
Go!, a low-key deli, is one of numerous cafes on the Google campus in Mountain View. This was exactly how my friend Kelly and I were able to take a cuisine tour of one of the world’s hottest tech companies. A former coworker of my dad’s agreed to host us for an afternoon of food sampling and cafeteria exploration. We met our guide at his building, a structure disconnected from the Googleplex but surrounded by lush lawns dotted with red Adirondack chairs, and immediately sat down to determine our course of lunching action.
Google provides their employees with access to an internal website that includes a café navigation system and daily menus. Underneath each item on the menu, colorcoded ingredients are listed – something highlighted in green or yellow roughly represents “healthy” and “somewhat healthy,” respectively, while food that some workers might want to avoid, such as bleached flour or heavy cream, are colored bright red. Small graphics that
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MOSAIC SPECIAL REPORT
Mahima Dutt | Mosaic Staff
Brisbane couple Phil Kotzan, left, and Andrew Somera share a celebratory kiss after the Supreme Court justices rule in favor of same-sex marriage.
COURTING MARRIAGE Bay Area’s LGBT community celebrates the end of Prop. 8, federal ban on benefits
Kelly Chang | Mosaic Staff
Karin Jaffie of San Francisco joins other marriage-equality supporters at San Francisco City Hall on June 26 to cheer the high court rulings.
Mosaic Staff Report San Francisco drag queen Paul Pratt couldn’t sleep the night before the U.S. Supreme Court announced landmark rulings that left him and thousands of other Bay Area same-sex marriage supporters celebrating a victory this week. The editor of Gloss Magazine was one of a handful of residents who nervously filed into the streets of the predominantly gay Castro district early on the morning of June 26 in anticipation of the rulings. The court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California. “It wasn’t what we had hoped for, but they are
RAPE CULTURE:
nice things,” said Sue Barnes, director of the Rape Crisis Department at the YWCA of Silicon Valley. But people react differently to rape. “When someone gets assaulted, they tell them, ‘You shouldn’t have worn that, you shouldn’t have been there,’” Barnes said. “It’s the only crime that I know of that blames the victim.” Debrianna Dimas, 22, of Chico was raped when she was 14 while living in San Jose. People “asked if alcohol was involved because then it would be my RAPE | PAGE 4
GAY MARRIAGE | PAGE 7
One Night Only: Lincoln High stars return for benefit show
Blaming the victims
BY BRENDA SU Mosaic Staff Writer Despite remarkable progress in recent decades toward gender equality in politics, the workplace and education, women still face stubborn obstacles in one critical area: personal safety. Women and their advocates blame the persistence of sexual assault on what they call a culture of rape. In fact, the issue is so stigmatized that many victims are still afraid to discuss it. “If someone’s home gets robbed, no one ever blames them for having
victories for our community,” said Pratt, who goes by Pollo Del Mar when in drag. Hundreds of mostly gay-rights advocates congregated at San Francisco City Hall on the morning of the announcements, waving rainbow flags and greeting the decisions with screams and cheers. The post-ruling excitement continued into the night in the Castro neighborhood and across the Bay Area. “The Supreme Court can make California whole again,” said John Lewis, who with partner Stuart Gaffney, was a plaintiff in a high-profile 2008 lawsuit that argued California’s gay marriage ban violated the state constitution.
Jonae Scott | Mosaic Staff
A musician rehearses for “In The Heights.”
BY PERLA LUNA Mosaic Staff Writer Musical director Anne-Marie Katemopoulos stands stern and draws silence from a 10-member band before leading them into the opening notes of a musical number. Manuel Rodriguez, an alumnus of the performing arts program at Lincoln High School in San Jose, tears himself away from his ebullient chatter with cast mates to meld his voice with the rest of the cast. Together, their voices form a crescendo of tentative humming, gaining momentum as the chorus, all proud
Lincoln High School alumni, transfers its zeal from words into song. It’s 24 hours to showtime, and the Lincoln High School performing arts department supporters are frantically putting together “In The Heights,” a musical showcase featuring Lincoln’s returning alumni. Their efforts are aimed at helping the program’s support group raise $40,000, which will be used for the 2013-2014 school year. The short amount of rehearsal time is stressful for Rodriguez and his castmates. Still, for Rodriguez, being invited back to STAGING STAR | PAGE 17