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Profile: Opportunity Lost Spotlight: Graduates and the Virus Micro Climate: Lifting Spirits History: Tombstones
ISSUE FIFTY EIGHT • JUNE • 2020
American Covid
The New Normal?
Climate Invites Readers to Submit Their “American Stories” Climate will be devoting much of the July issue to a big subject—What makes America special?— and is inviting readers to submit their own, personal responses to that question.
The topic is huge, and contributors can focus on any aspect of living in America or being an
American that is particularly meaningful to them.
It could, for example, be a chapter from the country’s history or a founding principle of American gov-
ernment. The stories might also be about an aspect of culture, sports, the arts, education, cuisine or hobbies.
Perhaps there’s a hero or a celebrity, a leader or artist who embodies what makes America great, or
an ideal or a uniquely American characteristic. These mini essays might even deal with the writer’s own personal story about what it means to be an American. Contributors should speak from the heart and tell their stories in their own voice.
The sky’s the limit, but not the length. The stories can be between 150 to 400 words, and they must
be received by June 15. Submissions should be sent to editor@climaterwc.com. The stories that are published in Climate magazine will be selected by the editors, and will be subject to editing.
Public Fourth of July celebrations may have been canceled, but Climate encourages readers to exercise
their freedom of expression—in 400 or word or less.
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR•
Here it is June and the coronavirus continues to rearrange everyone’s lives and plans. Shockingly few months ago, Climate’s editorial team was envisioning a June issue that would have been anchored by a big outdoorsy feature. Even last month, I expressed the hope on this page (for the second time) that the magazine would be back in print instead of available only online. (Maybe I should stop talking about it.) But Covid-19 and the response to it remains the big story everywhere, San Mateo County included, and there’s no shortage of angles and implications to pursue in this online issue of Climate. Thankfully, the crisis restrictions are easing, and life is regaining some semblance of normality. Climate tasked writer Vlae Kershner with exploring what this “new normal” could mean for local communities, from reviving ghosted downtowns to going back to offices with a six-degrees-of-separation ethos. Impacts impact on each other, and public transit, particularly Caltrain, has seen ridership, and revenue plummet as commuters have stayed home. Will they return? Likewise, the cost to local government is pretty daunting. One of the biggest challenges Vlae had to deal with in writing the story was that events are continually changing. Case in point: San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow on May 29 announced a further easing of the shelter-in-place rules for retail establishments and houses of worship effective June 1. Vlae's begins on page 8. This month’s Profile and Spotlight stories look at two unfortunate “down sides” of the prolonged shutdown. The first is about the premature closing of schools which has robbed graduates in particular of traditions they and their families had fully expected to enjoy—the proms, awards nights, commencements and properly saying good-bye to classmates, teachers and a stage of life. That story is on page 16. Scott Dailey explores the ramifications of the shelter-in-place order for nonprofits, churches and other religious institutions. Many charities have had to cancel fundraisers at the same time demand for their services is skyrocketing. Churches have had to turn to the Internet to present their services online, but being unable to be meet in person has been painful both for pastors and worshipers alike. This sector is an “essential” component of a healthy society, and I hope people who have the wherewithal to contribute will do so. Ours has always been a generous community, and these organizations really need our support. We already know there’ll be no Fourth of July Parade or fireworks in July, but we’re planning an issue that will include short essays from various voices about what we love about America. It’s open to reader contributions, so here’s your chance to be published in Climate! More information is on the opposite page. Go for it!
Janet McGovern, Editor June 2020 ·
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FEATU RE
A New Normal?
8 PROFILE
Opportunity Lost
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SPOTLIG HT Graduates
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AROUND TOWN ���������20 MICRO CLIMATE...........26 HISTORY......................30
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Hannig Cup 2020 •
C L I M AT E •
The Gratitude for First Responders & Hospital Workers Regatta
The Hannig Cup started on September 13, 2006 when a local sailor had a birthday and wanted to give back. With Sequoia Yacht Club a sailboat speed race, as well as an innovative real or virtual boat race for the most funds raised for charity, was held. In the 14-years since its inception, nearly $4 million has been given to local charities.
Ted Hannig hands out awards during the 2019 dinner
This ad was provided as a courtesy of
This year's race will be entirely virtual. Any group can create a boat name and enter as a "boat", and the group that donates the most directly to charity wins. Instead of an awards dinner, sponsor Black Mountain Properties, LLC will be donating meals to first responders and hospital workers. In addition, Hannig Law LLP's virtual race committee boat will donate $50,000 to Sequoia Hospital to help hospital workers, and $17,500 to support a local nursing scholarship fund. You can raise money for any 501(c)3 charities your "virtual boat" group chooses, and donate directly to the charities. Report by August 31st on the Facebook page "Hannig Cup." Happy virtual sailing! As with any sailboat race, a good start is critical — so do not delay your start in raising funds for community charities. Winner will be announced on Facebook. June 2020 · CLIMATE ·5 Neighbors helping neighbors - since 1938
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CLIMATE M A G A Z I N E Publisher
S.F. Bay Media Group Editor
Janet McGovern editor@climaterwc.com Creative Director
Jim Kirkland jim@climaterwc.com Contributing Writers
Vlae Kershner Scott Dailey Janet McGovern Jim Clifford Photographer
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 ©2020 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 303 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065. Printed in the U.S.A.
6 · CLIMATE · June 2020
C L I M AT E •
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C L I M AT E •
VACUUM & SEWING CENTER s h p l a
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Store clearance sale Brands: BabyLock, Elna / sewing machines / sergers and a long arm quilter
Sewing furniture will be 30-40% off
May 1 - June 15
Limits on sales items are floor models and in stock merchandise only. Vacuums also discounted.
Call 650-368-2841 for more info 837 Main Street, Redwood City
TOGETHER, WE DESIGN PLACES THAT INSPIRE PEOPLE
851 MAIN STREET
June 2020 ·
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F E AT U R E •
Devin Roberts, general manager of Freewheel Brewery, poses in the brewery/restaurant where tables have been put aside to allow for takeout orders and packaged beer only.
8 · CLIMATE · June 2020
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F E AT U R E •
Rarin’ to Go:
Preparing for the
New Normal By Vlae Kershner
Welcome back, San Mateo County. To what? With some restrictions being eased even as the Covid-19 pandemic continues, a debate has broken out throughout the nation: What should be the balance between lives and livelihoods? Here in the Bay Area, the “saving lives” argument has taken precedence, with unparalleled restrictions on daily life. In downtown Redwood City, the change has been striking. At the height of the shutdown in April, streets were almost deserted. The only sign flashing “OPEN” was at All-Pro Bail Bonds. Among the few other places doing business were the post office and the Dignity Health urgent care center, which offered Covid-19 tests. June 2020 ·
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By late May, some restrictions had been But Freewheel Brewing Co. in Marsh relaxed and so-called quarantine fatigue Manor, which sells homemade craft beers had set in. Much of the auto and pedes- as well as food, is hanging in there. Since trian traffic had returned, along with an reopening for takeout in April after a fiveincreased number of restaurants offering week shutdown, General Manager Devin curbside and table service. Less than half Roberts has seen traffic picking up. the pedestrians wore face masks, which are “We actually had a pretty good last required for entering businesses but only couple weeks,” Roberts said. “We’re lucky recommended for outdoor exercise. to have a lot of support from the commu Even after the virus recedes, the scene nity and we’re preparing to reopen fully won’t return exactly to what it was in Jan- whenever authorities give the go-ahead.” uary, as society adjusts to a “new normal.” The restaurant industry faces one of the greatest adjustments. Open Table reports that even in states that have allowed table service to reopen, bookings remain down 75 percent or more. According to a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, “The restauFreewheel chef Benny Magana waits to prepare a takeout order. rant industry seems particularly vulnerable to a long crisis. Restaurateurs believe that they have a 72 percent chance of survival if the crisis lasts one month, but if the crisis lasts four months, then they give themselves only a 30 percent chance of survival. If the crisis lasts for six months, Federal Guidelines then they expect to survive with only a 15 Guidelines issued by the U.S. Food and percent probability.” Drug Administration call for infection con Redwood City suffered a loss on May 19 trol and social distancing measures includwhen Specialty’s Bakery and Café, known ing discontinuing salad bars, buffets, and for its giant cookies, permanently closed its beverage stations, increased wiping down 50 bakery-cafes, including one in Redwood of surfaces, practicing social distancing Shores, after 33 years in operation. when delivering food, and maintaining In Palo Alto, Dan Gordon’s, a beer six-foot spacing for pickups. and barbecue spot owned by the Gordon Freewheel’s prior seating arrangeBiersch co-founder, announced April 13 it ment—including barstools and a long would not reopen. 16-person table for large groups having
happy hours—likely won’t be allowed due to proposed rules calling for maximum table sizes and six-foot spacing between tables. Roberts is making plans to arrange smaller tables both inside and on the patio. Despite the disruption, “for me personally, I think it’s fair.” He and the two owners “are all of the same mind, it’s for the greater good. Nobody’s complained nobody’s said this is BS It’s obviously very hard for businesses like ours predicated on socializing. “We are fortunate that we don’t have that big a space and have a dedicated community pushing people to drink local independent beer, made down the street. They want to see you succeed.” The possibility of a second wave of Covid-19 infections concerns him, though. “One thing we’re apprehensive about, if we did see another surge, that would be tough.” Don Burrus, Redwood City economic development manager, said one of the first steps the city took was to allow temporary parking in front of every restaurant, so delivery-service drivers could pull up and grab food to go. David Kassouf, owner of The Sandwich Spot on Broadway, has been making do with takeout and to-go orders, but has lost up to 94 percent of his business from the prior level of 500 to 600 sandwiches a day. Through April, his losses totaled $23,000. “I am hurting big-time. It’s not just me, it’s the whole world.” He hasn’t laid anyone off but nonetheless lost four employees who couldn’t or didn’t want to work during the pandemic. With so many restaurant workers laid off, he received a record 90 applicants through a single Facebook posting for a job opening.
“We are fortunate that we don’t have that big a space and have a dedicated community pushing people to drink local independent beer, made down the street. They want to see you succeed.”
10 · CLIMATE · June 2020
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David Kassouf, owner of The Sandwich Spot on Broadway, has been making do with takeout and to-go orders, but has lost up to 94 percent of his business from the prior level of 500 to 600 sandwiches a day. Through April, his losses totaled $23,000. Kassouf has installed feet stickers on the floor and a Plexiglass screen dividing customers from the pickup counter. He is awaiting guidelines on what will be necessary to fully reopen. “I love Redwood City,” he says. Although he counts several city officials as customers, he says they haven’t been able to tell him much pending instructions from health authorities. On-Street Dining A wild card is whether the city decides to block off Broadway to auto traffic, a proposal that’s being formulated at the staff level. Under the plan, restaurants could put tables and chairs in the street for open-air food halls, making up for the loss of interior seating. Broadway already has characteristics of downtown pedestrian malls in other cities, including wide cobblestone sidewalks, planter boxes, and a focal point at Courthouse Square. Under one version of the plan, temporary closures would last until the start of rainy season. While traffic and parking are concerns, more customers might dine out on warm sunny days if they had confidence they were only being served the right kind of Corona. "I think it would be good depending on how they do it,” Kassouf said. Besides downtown, outdoor expansions could be done at other retail centers including malls. For example, a furniture company could have clearance sales in its parking lot, Burrus said. In San Carlos, city staff presented the council with a proposal to close the 600, 700 and 800 blocks of Laurel Street tempo-
rarily to encourage pedestrian activity and allow restaurants to serve more patrons while practicing social distancing. “We want to see if we can figure this out. We’re reaching out to restaurant owners and a couple others,” Mayor Ron Collins said. He noted that while the city is in relatively good fiscal shape thanks to recent surpluses and a rainy-day fund, it needs to manage expected sharp declines in sales tax and hotel tax revenue. “The more we can do to encourage businesses on Laurel Street, it helps everybody,” he said. Regina Van Brunt of the 95-member Redwood City Downtown Business Group said a key step in reopening is getting clear guidelines from the San Mateo County Health Department on what will be necessary, so businesses can get prepared now. Those preparations include spacing measures, such as stickers on the floor and Plexiglass shields. One concern she has is that “not a lot of people who are visiting downtown Redwood City are wearing masks.” City Budgets Slammed Covid-19 also poses a challenge to the budgets of most municipalities, including Redwood City. At a recent council meeting, staff estimated there would be a $5.1 million shortfall for the fiscal year that ends in June. That is expected to be made up by measures including delayed filling of vacancies and a $1.5 million reduction in an extra contribution to CalPERS that had been planned to work down the shortfall in pension funds.
However, in fiscal 2020-21, the challenges get more severe. City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz told the council the source of 32 percent of city revenues was at significant risk, including sales tax reductions each of the next two years, and business license taxes. Sources of an additional 45 percent may be at risk, including property tax, with a preliminary forecast showing a decline starting in 2021-22. The crisis also has required additional spending estimated at $2.6 million thus far. There is special concern for undocumented immigrants, many of them in the Fair Oaks neighborhood, who are not eligible for the $1,200 federal stimulus checks. Working through the Fair Oaks Community Center, the city had distributed $644,719 for emergency rental assistance to 349 households as of mid-May, with hundreds of applications still pending. “They’re the ones struggling the worst. They’re having a really hard time making the rent payment,” council member Alicia Aguirre said. Many have lost their jobs at restaurants. Others are jeopardizing their health working in hard-hit senior care facilities. About two-thirds of the county’s Covid-19 deaths as of May 21—50 out of 76—were associated with residents or staff at long-term care facilities. The council also approved the contribution of $300,000 to the San Mateo County Strong Fund’s Small Business Grant Program to help small businesses in Redwood City. The donation was matched by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
June 2020 ·
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• Pension Shortfall Looking ahead, the crisis turns the city’s $300 million obligation to pay its workers’ pensions into even more of a fiscal cliff. CalPERS, which manages the pension program, assumes a 7 percent annual rise in the value of its investments. However, recent stock market declines have changed the forecast return for 2019-20 to minus 4 percent. The shortfall would mean increased contributions starting in 2023 and continuing through 2027 totaling more than $10 million. “There has to be some legislator somewhere who understands the potential for this to bankrupt cities,” council member Ian Bain said at a recent meeting. “I’d like to think how we can proactively advocate for something that will create a long-term structural change for cities.” Worries about fiscal disaster are even more acute for transit agencies. Shelter-in-place has reduced the number of Caltrain commuters by more than 95 percent. Near-empty trains chug up and down the Peninsula hourly. (The situation at SamTrans is similar, except that the drop in bus ridership isn’t quite as severe). “It is clear that the railroad is facing a financial crisis for at least FY21,” staff wrote in a recent presentation for the board. Preliminary projections show revenue gaps of $22 million to $66 million for fiscal 2020-21, with additional declines in Go Pass sales since employers probably will not need to buy as many for their workers. Before the crisis, commuter trains ran at 130 percent of seated capacity during peak hours. This could be reduced to 50 percent or less due to social distancing
F E AT U R E •
rules and riders’ unwillingness to board packed trains. Once the orders are lifted, “We expect to promote social distancing and the wearing of face coverings for as long as medical experts recommend doing so. Given that these practices dramatically decrease the odds of contracting Covid-19, we expect that to be the norm for the near future,” spokesman Dan Lieberman said.
sustainable for the foreseeable future … and there’s long been an excellent case to be made that it never was,” said Adrian Brandt, who runs the Friends of Caltrain Facebook group. If public transit is significantly reduced, traffic could get much worse. A model created by Vanderbilt University researchers showed the San Francisco area facing the worst delays in the country, even more than New York and Los Angeles, once workers return to their daily commutes. If only one in four transit and casual carpool users switches to driving alone, the two-way commute time is projected to rise by 20 minutes a day. If three out of four drove solo, the additional time would be 80 minutes. The Bay Area is particularly vulnerable by virtue of being relatively transit-heavy, with roads already close to maxed out at peak hours. “Cities that depend on transit are at risk for extreme traffic unless transit systems can resume safe, high throughput operations quickly,” the authors noted. Effective transit also depends on having enough workers going back to their offices. Redwood City has about 6,600 business license holders. Burrus said the city is working on preparing guidelines for businesses to reopen safely. For example, offices typically require 175 square feet per employee. With social distancing, more space per employee might be needed. “If on your floor there are ten cubes, that could go to five because of social distancing.”
“Due to Caltrain’s heavy reliance on farebox revenues, and its lack of a dedicated revenue source, the pandemic has been financially devastating."
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Caltrain in Peril “Due to Caltrain’s heavy reliance on farebox revenues, and its lack of a dedicated revenue source, the pandemic has been financially devastating. The federal relief package has been sufficient to keep the agency funded through August, but we will likely need further support to cover us until we can return to our usual levels of ridership. We’re currently evaluating a host of financial and service scenarios in an effort to stay flexible as riders return.” “Caltrain’s funding and maybe even its governance model looks utterly un-
• As an offset to lower densities, telecommuting is expected to become more of an option since companies have become accustomed to holding meetings via teleconferencing. For employers, this has longterm potential to save money on rent. Out of the Office A Bay Area Council survey of 123 top executives in May found that 89 percent were planning policies that allowed working remotely, with 66 percent figuring on rotating work schedules during the week to reduce the number of employees coming into the office. Almost a fifth of the companies were planning to move to full remote work. Major tech companies are taking the lead. Twitter and Square, which share Jack Dorsey as CEO, announced they would allow employees to continue working remotely after shelter-in-place orders expire. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said as many as half his company’s employees could be working remotely within 10 years. The commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield has come up with a concept called Six Feet Office that uses a variety of techniques to keep employees away from one another. These include widely spaced desks with circles on the carpets to remind employees not to come too close, and patterns to guide one-way foot traffic. “The six feet rule isn’t going away anytime soon,” the company said. One business that has remained open is Marketing Direct Insurance Services on Brewster Avenue. Martin Sullivan, who has been in the insurance business since 1984, says it’s relatively easy for him to maintain social distancing because customers only come in one or two at a time.
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“We mostly serve the Hispanic community. They like to deal with you on a personal basis. If we stayed closed, people would have a difficult time maintaining their car insurance. We take care of those people in difficult times.” For example, Sullivan has been processing registration renewals, a business that has picked up since Department of Motor Vehicles offices have closed.
Martin Sullivan
In six Bay Area counties including San Mateo, a shelter-in-place order was issued March 16. Governor Gavin Newsom made the order statewide March 19. An order generally requiring face masks in places of business was issued April 17. Most notably, the order was challenged by entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose Tesla factory in Fremont was shut down. Never shy with his opinions, Musk termed shelter-in-place “fascist” and said it is “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights,” although the order does allow people to go outside for necessary shopping and exercise. Musk threatened to move Tesla’s Palo Alto headquarters out of California and reconsider having its plant in Fremont. Eventually, an agreement was reached with Alameda County allowing the factory to resume operations on May 18. While few others have used such inflammatory language, there is quite a bit of opposition to the safety measures from the conservative end of the political spectrum. A poll by the UC-Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that 78 percent of those who strongly support President Trump thought the state would suffer unnecessary economic damage by leaving shelter-in-place on too long. By contrast, 91 percent of those who strongly oppose Trump had the opposite worry, that that shelter-in-place would end too soon, as did 69 percent of voters overall.
“We mostly serve the Hispanic community. They like to deal with you on a personal basis. If we stayed closed, people would have a difficult time maintaining their car insurance. We take care of those people in difficult times.” New business has been “cut down to almost nothing” from a normal level of 20 new policies a month. “People are scared to come in except those who have talk to you to keep their insurance.” He believes the stay-at-home orders have gone too far, putting many businesses in danger of closing. “The governor should back off a little. If people don’t start going back to work, I don’t know …” A burning issue nationwide is whether the government is going too far in restricting movement and free association.
The Tradeoff In the Bay Area, it hasn’t been socially acceptable to make the lives vs. livelihoods tradeoff explicit. Antioch Planning Commission Chairman Ken Turnage II found
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"Perhaps the closest comparison is the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which lasted until the winter of 1919-20, killing an estimated 675,000 Americans. As is true today, the response included quarantining, bans on public gatherings, and mandatory face masks. that out after a Facebook post that read “In my opinion we need to adapt a Herd Mentality. A herd gathers its ranks, it allows the sick, the old, the injured to meet its natural course in nature.” He also said the virus could cure the homeless problem. The Antioch City Council voted unanimously to remove Turnage from its post after he refused to apologize. The San Joaquin Valley city of Atwater made headlines in May when it declared itself a “sanctuary city” that would not enforce shelter-in-place orders against businesses that reopened ahead of state guidelines. In the Bay Area, however, with the exception of Musk, there have been few signs of rebellion. The general attitude was expressed by Van Brunt. “We want to do this in the right way to protect the businesses as
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much as possible so that when we do reopen we do it right and no closures will have to happen.” San Mateo County’s first easing came on April 29, when outdoor businesses, including gardening and construction, were allowed to resume operations. Retail businesses were allowed to resume curbside and delivery service on May 18. Still, the county is early in the governor’s fourphase recovery plan. As April turned to May, more people hit the streets and gasoline sales picked up, illustrating Admiral David Farragut’s Civil War observation after lobbing shells into besieged Vicksburg: “After people are harassed to a certain extent, they become indifferent to danger.” Perhaps the closest comparison is the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which lasted until the winter of 1919-20, killing an es-
timated 675,000 Americans. As is true today, the response included quarantining, bans on public gatherings, and mandatory face masks. In a timely paper published in March, economists including Sergio Correia of the Federal Reserve system found that the 1918 response on average reduced manufacturing output by 18 percent, but less in cities that took strong action. “We find that cities that intervened earlier and more aggressively do not perform worse, and, if anything, grow faster after the pandemic is over. Our findings thus indicate that (non-pharmaceutical interventions) not only lower mortality; they may also mitigate the adverse economic consequences of a pandemic.”
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Nonprofits are Leaders in COVID-19 Response • ADVERTISEMENT•
While COVID-19 began as a public health emergency, it has evolved into a crisis that has thrown almost every part of daily life into chaos. For people who’ve lost a job, the pandemic has also become an economic crisis. For those who can no longer afford rent or a mortgage payment, COVID-19 has become a housing crisis. Without a steady paycheck, millions of families are straining to put food on the table. And without access to the Internet, millions of students are struggling to participate in at-home learning. The picture that emerges is one of cascading crises, where people who were already vulnerable to one kind of shock are now vulnerable to many. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing here in the Bay Area. Families experiencing homelessness, for example, have long been locked out of the region’s housing market. Now they have little shelter from the virus. Undocumented immigrants, meanwhile, are ineligible to receive federal assistance, leaving them especially susceptible to financial catastrophe. In this way, COVID-19 is tearing at the holes in America’s social safety net. But it’s also revealing the heroic work people do to hold it together. Local nonprofit organizations, many of which have been serving their communities for decades, have emerged as some of the most powerful forces for response and recovery during the crisis. And many of them have reinvented themselves along the way. One of those nonprofits is Daly City Partnership. Prior to the pandemic, it provided a wide range of services in northern San Mateo County — but when
RENT
requests for food and shelter increased by fivefold or more, the organization pivoted toward providing the basics. “We are the back-up emergency plan for the community,” explains Pat Bohm, Executive Director of the Partnership. Other organizations are working to meet emerging needs in their communities. When schools in San Mateo County’s South Coast switched to at-home learning, for example, some students were getting left out because they didn’t have access to the internet. It wasn’t long before a local organization, Puente de la Costa Sur, began circulating hotspots and advocating for broadband access for their community. Many nonprofit leaders are concerned that COVID-19 is worsening longstanding problems. “[We’re] see[ing] everything from severe academic stress to crisis situations where children are depressed and can’t cope,” says Elena Cacace, Clinical Director of CASSY, a mental health provider for students. She says the organization’s work is taking on new urgency, and fears that schools could be forced to cut their mental health
programs at a moment when students need them most. As local nonprofits strive to do more with less, their staff are also feeling the strain. At the East Palo Alto organization Nuestra Casa, for example, an outreach worker spends her days ensuring that members of her community are counted in the 2020 Census. But at night, she takes care of her sick husband, and worries about making ends meet as the pandemic drags on. In moments like these, the power of community becomes more important than ever. Organizations working to keep our communities healthy and safe need support — not just now, but for many months to come. “As people start to focus on getting back to some sense of normalcy, that won’t happen for us,” says Samantha Peterson, from LifeMoves, a nonprofit that supports individuals experiencing homelessness. “We’re going to need to stay in these emergency efforts for the long term to make sure that we continue to protect our community.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE ORGANIZATIONS
CASSY
cassybayarea.org
LifeMoves
lifemoves.org
Puente de la Costa Sur mypuente.org
Daly City Partnership
Nuestra Casa
nuestracasa.org
dcpartnership.org
June 2020 ·
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PROFILE•
Opportunity Lost Local nonprofits and religious organizations try to cope with the coronavirus shutdown
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PROFILE•
By Scott Dailey
Spring is here, and with it plans for golf tournaments, auctions and dinners for the Peninsula’s many nonprofit organizations – all up in smoke because of the coronavirus and its associated shelter-inplace orders. The economic loss could easily top $1 million to dozens of local charities, including Redwood City’s Kainos Home and Training Center for intellectually and developmentally disabled adults; LifeMoves, which helps the homeless in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties; the Upper Peninsula League of the San Francisco Symphony; the San Mateo County Historical Association; Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion School in Atherton; and Upward Scholars, which assists largely minority adults who are headed back to school.
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oreover, at a time when local nonprofits are being squeezed financially, they’re also being strained operationally. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, which normally provides food to around 270,000 monthly clients, has seen that number surge by 100,000 per month since the outbreak began and people started losing their jobs because of the economic shutdown. At Samaritan House in San Mateo, which aids the poor in numerous ways, requests for financial assistance have jumped more than tenfold, from $140,000 per month to more than $1.5 million, according to Chief Executive Officer Bart Charlow. “We’re seeing an awful lot of people who desperately need help that didn’t before,” Charlow says.
Adds Chief Executive Officer Leslie Bacho of Second Harvest, “We’re seeing completely unprecedented demand for our services. As soon as the shelter-in-place began, we started seeing 25-, 50-, 100-percent increases in the number of people at our sites right away.” Bacho observes further that daily phone calls for food have increased from around 280 to more than 1,000. More than half of the people currently seeking help, she says, are coming to Second Harvest for the first time. Houses of worship are also being pinched, although not as painfully as many nonprofits. Local Jewish and Protestant clergy report only a slight decrease in offerings. The relatively mild drop, they say, has resulted from members’ mailing in checks and giving through electronic services such as PayPal, instead of the offering plate.
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• It’s a different situation, though, for the Muslim congregation of Masjid Ul Haqq in San Mateo. There, Imam Hamzah Palya says the month of Ramadan, running this year from April 23 to May 23, is traditionally a significant time of giving. Palya says this Ramadan was expected to bring in noticeably fewer offerings than usual. Among Catholic churches, the 90 parishes in San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin counties initially took a hit of up to 50 or 60 percent of offerings, according to Rod Linhares, director of development for the San Francisco Archdiocese. Linhares says the shortfall has now leveled off at between 25 and 30 percent, in part because of a quick modernization of many local churches’ giving practices, which had relied heavily on the Sunday-morning collection basket. Others Meeting in Churches Other revenue streams for religious organizations have also dried up during the stayat-home order. Many congregations rent their fellowship halls and Sunday school classrooms to associations ranging from 12-step groups to garden clubs and scout troops. In an example of how the coronavirus shutdown has rippled through the economy, the current absence of such tenants – as well as worshipers – has led Sequoia Church in Redwood City to discontinue its janitorial and gardening services. A greater setback to religious organizations, local clergy agree, is the loss of fellowship. “So much of Jewish life is done in community,” says Rabbi Nat Ezray of Congregation Beth Jacob in Redwood City. Ezray points to what he calls “life-cycle events” – bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and funerals, as well as the traditional Friday-night
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PROFILE• Gaddini says. “There’s a lot of pain in our community from not being in the same room. But (with online services), there’s a lot of opportunity, as well.”
Rabbi Nat Ezray of Congregation Beth Jacob
“So much of Jewish life is done in community.” observance of the Sabbath, as times when Jews gather to worship, celebrate and say goodbye to loved ones. Pastor Paul Schult of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Redwood City concurs. “We’ve done our best to use technology such as Zoom to put worship services and Bible studies online,” Schult says. “But it’s not the same as being face-to-face.” Adds Dennis Logie, retired pastor of Sequoia Church, “When you take away community from a church or a synagogue or a mosque, you have really hit people with a hard blow. This kind of quarantine is really difficult for people who are used to going to church. We miss each other.” On the other hand, Ezray says, online broadcasts of temple services have widened Beth Jacob’s congregation. It’s a similar story at Redwood City’s 1,000-member Peninsula Covenant Church, where Lead Pastor Gary Gaddini says broadcasts have been joined by worshipers in the South, Midwest and Canada. “We grieve at not being able to be at bedsides and be together in the world,”
Canceled Fundraisers Opportunity lost, however, is the common theme for many nonprofits. Kainos Home and Training Center in Redwood City voluntarily scrubbed its annual dinner, scheduled for March 6, which was expected to draw up to 350 donors. An April 27 golf tournament to benefit the home was also canceled, and along with it an anticipated $150,000 in revenue. In jeopardy now is a fashion show currently set for the fall, which organizers say could bring up to $250,000. Even if today’s shelter-in-place orders were relaxed by then, Kainos Executive Director Andy Frisch says, “I don’t know if people will be willing to sit at a banquet table.” Major fundraisers have also been lost at LifeMoves, which helps people in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties overcome homelessness. A canceled luncheon scheduled for March 20 was anticipated to pull in $250,000. The organization’s annual breakfast in September, which Vice President of Programs and Services Brian Greenberg says typically attracts 1,100 guests, was expected to raise $850,000. Greenberg says the organization “is probably not going to do it in person,” and is currently considering whether to hold the event online. At the San Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City, the Sanchez Adobe in Pacifica and the historic Woodside Store, now all closed, the stay-at-home orders have had a pronounced effect. President Mitch Postel of the San Mateo County Historical Association says the sites are losing
• $25,000 in revenue every month from foregone school programs, rentals, admissions and souvenir sales. Postel says 50 percent of the association’s $1.6-million budget comes from two big fundraisers – a now-threatened “history-makers” dinner in September and an annual campaign scheduled to launch in January. Postel adds that nine of the museum’s 11 parttime staff have been laid off, with nine full-timers keeping their jobs through at least July. When it comes to lost fundraisers, Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion School in Atherton has been luckier than many organizations. Irma Zoepf, treasurer of Unidos y Adelante Selby, the school’s parent-teacher organization, says the group’s two big events, a party and an auction, were expected to raise $30,000 or more. Even though the programs were canceled, parents and other donors still contributed $20,000. Another local educational charity has been less fortunate. Zoepf is also president of the board of Upward Scholars, which provides economic and academic support to low-income, mostly immigrant adults who return to school to earn a General Equivalency Degree and, in many cases, continue on to college. This is the organization’s tenth year, and Zoepf says Upward Scholars had invested more than $10,000 in a gala scheduled for March 28 that was expected to bring in more than $50,000. Zoepf hopes the event can still be held toward the end of the year. The Upper Peninsula League of the San Francisco Symphony has also come up short. Vonya Morris, the organization’s leader, says the group’s annual “Hats Off to the Symphony” event would have raised $20,000. In addition, in March, the League had to cancel its annual bus-andbag-lunch trip to San Francisco for Penin-
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Pastor Paul Schult of Redeemer Lutheran Church
“We’ve done our best to use technology such as Zoom to put worship services and Bible studies online. But it’s not the same as being face-to-face.” sula senior citizens to watch the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. A National Crisis for Charities Nationwide, many nonprofits are facing potential closure, according to a May 12 article in The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper quoted Antony Bugg-Levine, CEO of the New York-based Nonprofit Finance Fund, as saying the coronavirus and its economic effect on charities was “an unprecedented calamity.” Chief Executive Officer Jan Masaoka of the California Association of Nonprofits also paints a gray picture. She says many of the nonprofit leaders she speaks with are talking about going out of business, or at least entering a period of hibernation.
Those who depend on the stretched – or sometimes closed – services of nonprofits are also feeling the strain. As one example, Masaoka cites the situation of parents in essential-service jobs who used to rely on nonprofit childcare providers. “If you’re one person whose kid was in an after-school program (that’s currently shut down), now you don’t have that opportunity,” she says. “Thousands and thousands and thousands of kids are like that now. Parents are scrambling to find where they can put their kids.” A Ray of Hope Especially among religious leaders, however, there rings a voice of hope throughout the tremendous difficulties. Ezray notes that Judaism teaches about the power of kindness, which he, other clergy and nonprofit leaders have observed through the generosity of donors and volunteers since the pandemic began. “I think when you experience kindness during times of great upheaval, it gives you a sense of purpose,” Ezray says. Noting that the Jewish people “have gone through tough times,” he adds, “I’m sure we can get through this.” Still, charities such as Samaritan House, which Charlow says has received many donations since the start of the outbreak, worry about what he calls the longterm “fundraising cliff,” where giving falls off after the initial urgency wears away. “We’re in a reasonably good position in the short run,” Charlow says. “No one knows what the long run will be. It’s been quite a ride, and we’re just at the beginning of the wave.” C
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Mount Carmel School Sends Off 2020 Graduates With roots going all the way back to 1885, graduation tradition is big at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Redwood City, and in the year when the coronavirus upended education, faculty and staff tried to make 2020 special regardless. This was especially true for eighth graders, some of whom have been together throughout their schooling, according to art teacher Kelly O’Connor. School colors—and masks—were on display May 2 for a “Padre Parade” of decorated cars. The following Saturday, teachers assembled on the Mount Carmel school grounds bright and early to caravan to the homes of the 28 eighth-graders to deliver yard signs. Fernando Martinez, whose daughter Karol is a member of the Class of 2020, came up with the idea for the signs, which he produced at his company, Peninsula Custom Signs, according to O’Connor. “I really liked it,” one of the eighth-graders said of the sign delivered to her home by 10car motorcade. “All the neighbors came out to see what was going on and they all came over and congratulated me.” Modified versions of the usual graduation events were held May 28 and 29, including a transfer of leadership to the seventh-graders at a candlelight ceremony (virtual and prerecorded), and the graduation ceremony was a hybrid drivein/virtual event.
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Sign on Redwood City Home Encourages Unity
Craig and Lindamarie Roche regularly festoon their home on Edgewood Road with seasonal outdoor décor, notably for Halloween, when they stage an elaborate, free haunted house. They wanted to put up a sign with an uplifting message during the coronavirus shutdown, and settled on “California Strong.” The Roches had plenty of leftover scraps and materials to build with, including the irrigation pipe Craig used, but when they put the sign on the house in late April, it wasn’t very visible. Since retooling it and placing it over the garage, the sign, which is lit from 7:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., has been getting lots of attention and positive feedback. Lindamarie says she and Craig intend to keep the sign up “until we get to some milestone that indicates there’s some definite hope.”
Photo by Craig Roche
Flyover Salutes Healthcare Workers
The 129th Rescue Wing, California Air National Guard at Mountain View conducted a flyover of various hospitals on Memorial Day. At precisely 1p.m. a C-130 Hercules, accompanied by two Blackhawk helicopters, skimmed over Sequoia Hospital. The purpose of these flyovers is to thank the healthcare workers, first responders, and other essential personnel on the front lines and to stand in solidarity with those personally suffering or experiencing loss. The flyover was a part of the Defense Department’s Operation America Strong campaign featuring military flyovers all over the country.
Brewery Makes Way for Hand Sanitizer Devil's Canyon Brewery would have never imagined hand sanitizer as a part of their business, but they have been happy to jump in an do their part in combating Covid-19. Since March they have packaged more than 1,000 gallons of pre-made hand sanitizer, donating much of it to local hospitals, law enforcement, schools and public agencies. Attempting to keep up with the demand and to source ingredients as quickly as possible to get sanitizer to all in need has been a challenge. Packaging has become difficult to source, and when it arrives, it goes quickly. Bottle sizes change continually depending on what is available in the market; ranging from four ounces to 24, and at times a gallon plus. Even as restrictions ease, the need for hand-sanitizing at employee workstations and public entrances is on the rise. Devil's Canyon is currently waiting on delivery of contactless hand sanitizer stations to help meet that demand as well. The sanitizer is available for sale at the Devil's Canyon Brewery located at 935 Washington Street, San Carlos. "We'll continue to sell at the Brewery in bulk and in small bottles as long as there is a demand, ingredients and packaging are available," says Devil's Canyon owner, Kristiann Garrette. June 2020 ·
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Graduates Sidelined by a Virus They Didn’t Catch For the Class of 2020, it’s celebration without “the sizzle”
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By Janet McGovern
The prom. The awards dinners. The senior trip, the yearbook-signing, and the cherry on top, a star turn picking up a diploma at commencement. This is the time of year when tradition rolls out red-carpet moments and lifelong memories for graduates—a rug, sadly, that was yanked out from under them in March. All over America, from middle-schoolers moving up, to high school and college students ready to move on, Covid-19 wronged the Class of 2020 of a normal rite of passage.
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hat left everyone from the students and their parents to their teachers and school administrators doing their best to turn lemons into lemonade. Education went online. So did maintaining connections with friends. Likewise, graduation ceremonies this year are digital productions assembled from prerecorded speeches and hundreds of selfies of graduates at home in their caps and gowns, all dressed up with no place to go.
“In a lot of ways,” says Sequoia High School Principal Sean Priest of the June 5 cyber-ceremony, “it’s the same general format as a live in-person graduation, you just don’t have the crowd and the sunshine and the football field and the band and all that stuff.” There’s nothing inherently fun about distributing caps and gowns, he adds, and “what makes it cool is all the pomp and circumstance.” The circumstance behind the de-pomped graduations arrived via a delayed-action fuse, as restrictions ordered by San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott
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• Morrow deepened. Schools initially were to close from March 16 to April 3, but the whole semester imploded with the extended shelter-in-place order. The Friday the 13th when students and school officials went home, they didn’t know they were saying goodbye. “There’s a genuine relationship that students and staff form over the course of four years together,” Priest continues. “And the end of the year there are so many different activities that provide an opportunity for both the students and the staff to have closure to that relationship.” Everyone is always excited to see the graduates move on, he adds, but “there’s a lot, I think, of trauma and mourning about these relationships being severed really unexpectedly and instantaneously.” Virtual Graduations Andres Raddavero, 18, is a Carlmont High School senior who is a student trustee to the Sequoia Union High School District Board. “It hurt a bit at first because that last day, we thought we’d be back in three weeks from then,” he says. Many of his classmates have been together since elementary school, he notes. “We’re going to have a virtual graduation. It’s better than nothing but it’s not what we were expecting a couple of months ago.” Before school ended, Tara DuBridge, 18, did track and was on the basketball team at Summit Preparatory Charter High School, as well as serving as a volunteer mentor to 11th graders in a cultural exchange program. “I can’t participate in most of the things that I really enjoy doing as a high school student,” says the Belmont resident, who has to content herself with practicing the clarinet and oboe at home. “So having it kind of taken away so quickly, it was shocking really.”
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SPOTLIGHT •
Stacy, Anika and Gjalt Huisman
"I know it’s important to stay inside and to stay apart from everybody. But I think we’ve all worked really hard for these moments and we’ve kind of used them to motivate us to keep going. So just like knowing that, it just feels like all the hard work that we put in doesn’t really count for anything.” Students like Sequoia High’s Student Body Vice President Anika Huisman, 17, try to put their disappointment in perspective. “I’ve been like trying to really get myself to think about the big picture rather than the few events that we’ve been missing,” she says. “... I know it’s important to stay inside and to stay apart from everybody. But I think we’ve all worked really hard for these moments and we’ve kind of used them to motivate us to keep going. So
just like knowing that, it just feels like all the hard work that we put in doesn’t really count for anything.” Woodside High School senior Jack Cruzan, 18, of Redwood City has tried to focus on activities he enjoys including skateboarding, working on his car and playing video games, rather than on not being able to “walk up and get a diploma and shake hands … I can’t really change that. There’s not really a big point in dwelling on that. It is what it is.” Since normal school life went into suspension, administrators, teachers —and parents—have tried to do what they can to adapt to remote learning, keep up morale and provide year-end alternatives to make 2020 memorable, in a different way. Adrian Dilley, who teaches tennis, weight-training, track and field and other sports to ninth graders at Sequoia, found technology “tough to say the least” in teaching PE. Kids were given suggested workouts with fitness logs to track their activity and submit reports weekly. YouTube was useful in teaching golf history and technique, but both teachers and students missed the face-to-face interaction. “It’s our routine,” Dilley says. “When people are out of their routines, motivation, interest and communication declines. It’s just not the same.” Academic and sports awards nights were all canceled, along with assemblies and graduation night trips. “It’s all gone,” says Sequoia district trustee Georgia Jack. “It’s really sad because April and May are huge both on high school and college campuses, the spring events that bring the community together.” A Windows Tradition Broken Woodside High graduates didn’t get to write their names and future plans on windows overlooking the quad, as is the tradi-
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tion, so an Instagram website was created, according to Zorina Matavulj, the school’s college and career advisor. She and other staff were printing and assembling 200 to 300 certificates in May to mail to students for a “virtual” awards ceremony. Kids won’t get to sign each other’s yearbooks. Woodside’s won’t arrive until September and will be mailed, Matavulj says, though Sequoia High principal Priest hopes to be able to distribute the 2020 book the week after graduation, along with diplomas. Drive-up Distribution Caps and gowns were given out to 400-plus graduates at the two schools in early May. At Sequoia, a team of staff and parents led by Linda Burt tried to juice up the distribution with balloons, signs and music, cheering on the students driving up in their cars. Sequoia’s Alumni Association slipped a flyer into each graduation packet with a lifetime membership offer at no charge. It would have cost $20.20, according to association secretary Nancy Oliver. “We decided this year that the seniors have missed out on so many things, and we feel really bad for them.” Says Priest: “It’s not the steak, it’s the sizzle. We’re trying to find the sizzle in these activities. They’re in a different format but I think we can still make them special.” Fifty-three students in Taylor White’s advanced dance class at Sequoia had spent months choreographing and rehearsing routines for the 51st annual show, only to see the campus close before she had a chance to at least record it. Tradition calls for presenting each senior with a rose bouquet at the end of the performance.
The Cryan family left to right: Sadie (an entering sophomore at Woodside), Monica, Sean, and Jack.
“He’ll go to work extra hours because it’s the only place he’s allowed to go without getting his hand slapped.” Taylor decided the show must go virtual. “Pop your parents down in a chair in front of you when you’re on stage,” she instructed the students, “turn your camera on and when you go off stage, just turn it off.” The “stages” were living rooms, garages and yards, but thanks to Zoom technology, the dancers not only got to perform, the show will live on video. Digital and Performing Arts Boosters and parents made sure the 30 seniors got their roses, home-delivered. In a post-event chat, one senior thanked Taylor for creating memories: “Even though they’re different, we’re still going to cherish them very much.”
stage presents unique dilemmas. Starting with the graduation party. Monica Cryan isn’t sure how to celebrate son Jack’s graduation. “I don’t think any of his friends’ parents will let any of them do anything because it’s like taboo right now to socially congregate,” she says. Jack has been able to get out of the house to tinker on his car and work part-time at Trader Joe’s. “He’ll go to work extra hours because it’s the only place he’s allowed to go without getting his hand slapped,” his mother says. She feels badly because 18 should be a time of transition to independence, but Jack, who has been accepted at UC Santa Cruz, may be stuck at home if classes aren’t in person. His senior trip to Europe this summer got cancelled as well. “It’s like they have nothing right now to really look forward to,” is his mother’s regretful summation. Raddavero, the Carlmont senior, speculates that his family will do what they did for Mother’s Day—visit his grandparents at their home in Palo Alto, gathered on the patio, talking to them on the phone. “We hang outside,” he explains. “They hang out inside. We eat on the outdoor table.” Matavulj says some of the kids she counseled at Woodside who were undecided between a two- and a four-year college will now opt for community college. A few say they are going to take a year off. But with a crashed job market and travel prospects sketchy, “it’s almost like they are more nervous about that because that’s more unknown even than college.”
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Transitions Stalled Though businesses and activities in the county are emerging from life on hold, for the Class of 2020, moving on to a next June 2020 ·
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Coronavirus Prompts Some Inventive Ways to Lift Spirits
Every year students at North Star Academy in Redwood City can participate in a “Lapathon,” an event to get them active and moving. Each kid walks or runs through a course for 30 minutes and the number of their laps is tallied. The kids ask family and friends to sponsor them, and the money raised goes to the PE program. With the coronavirus shelter-in-place, the event could easily have been skipped this year, but parent Julie Prosper, who led the Lapathon last year, brainstormed with husband Mike how to organize it with students at home. He came up with an idea that not only got kids moving, it proved a wildly successful fundraiser —with dual beneficiaries: The money the kids raised bought gift cards at 44 local businesses that each participant selected, primarily restaurants, and the cards are being distributed to families in need. A total of 115 students registered in the May “Move-a-Thon” collectively walked or ran more than 1,300 miles. They also raised a phenomenal $20,861. Mike created a web page so the kids could list their local business of choice and log their progress towards their goals. “I scootered to Red Morton and John Gill with my little brother,” one of the kids reported. “I walked to one of my sister’s friends house
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and they said hi from 6 feet apart,” another said. Student Ruby Rappoport created the Move-a-Thon art work featuring the North Star “Griffin” on a treadmill. Principal Sara Shackel helped motivate the kids, adding to the fun by promoting weekly themes and devoting time during her daily video messages to give updates about the fundraising and shout-outs to “top movers.” On the web page, the kids gave their Yelp-type reasons for the businesses they chose to support. “I love their pizza and their mushroom toast,” one girl said of Vesta restaurant. “It’s one of the only places my parents and I agree on.” One of the Prospers’ two daughters, fourth-grader Sophie, chose the Canyon Inn. “I love their lasagna and play all the games they have inside. … I would literally die if Canyon Inn wasn’t there anymore.” The amounts the kids raised to buy gift cards ranged from $25 for Round Table Pizza to more than $2,200 for Sancho’s restaurant. Five of the restaurants are $1,000 beneficiaries, according to Julie Prosper. The distribution of the cards to local families is being done with the help of Patricia Ortiz of the Redwood City School District’s Community Partnerships; an average of $150 worth of gift cards to each of about 130 families. Necessity, meanwhile, has prompted Donato Scotti to invent new ways to keep revenue coming in at his Donato Enoteca restaurant in downtown Redwood City. Since customers can’t dine in, he’s created a package of “You Be the Chef!” menus so people can pick up the ingredients at the restaurant and prepare the food at home. Packages include fixings like pasta, sauce and cheese plus a how-to flyer. This innovative version of takeout debuted for Easter Sunday. It caught on and Donato Enoteca sold more than 100 orders for Mother’s Day. A mini grocery is just inside the door, with items like rice, olive oil, pastries and
cookies, jams and cocktails-to-go. When the shelter-in-place order came down in March, Scotti and his team thought of ways to “keep the customer engaged” — and his people working. Sunday family dinner was an essential part of Scotti’s life growing up in Italy, which gave inspiration to create three- and four-course family menus based on some of Donato Enoteca’s most popular items. Customers can pick up the meals on Saturday and prepare them on Sunday. “I think most of the people take it as a fun thing to do,” he says. “… Staying at home 2 ½ months and just staring at each other, looking at a computer or watching TV is not very healthy.” Scotti has been able to keep his Redwood City and Berkeley restaurants open but has closed the one in San Francisco and his Cru wine bar downtown during the shutdown. He’s not complaining about the restrictions though; his hometown of Bergamo was the hardest-hit Italian city by Covid-19. Moreover, his sister is a head nurse there. That said, looking on the positive side, the shutdown forced him to think outside the box: “One hundred packaged dinners for Mother’s Day, I would never have thought about it.” One of the lamentable losses this spring has been the sound of (live) music. Redwood City residents Ryan Zwahlen and Adrienne Malley—both oboists with extensive professional credits and orchestra experience—were practicing at home, but they missed being able to play for an audience. So one Tuesday evening in May they held their first half-hour classical music concert on his front porch on Topaz Street. The first porch concert, which Zwahlen livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram, attracted about 60 listeners online and 30 in the street. Notices on NextDoor doubled the street crowd. “It was amazing to actually get to play for people again and share
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Left to right, James Pytko, Adrienne Malley and Ryan Zwahlen.
our music,” he says. “We’re both doing different recordings online but it’s not quite the same when you’re staring into your phone camera … and people seemed to appreciate it so much.” They duo was later joined by another professional musician, clarinetist James Pytko. Most musicians have lost income as a result of the shutdown and prospects for concert halls and theaters reopening aren’t great. Though Zwahlen admits to worries about what’s ahead, it hadn’t occurred to him and Malley to put out a tip jar. But generous people who are able to give have insisted, so he put up a Venmo link for that purpose. The porch concerts typically take place between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., the date and time subject to weather. Frequent Climate contributor Scott Dailey teaches music at the East Palo Alto Academy. He and other teachers launched a fundraising campaign in May to aid families of students and hoped to collect $40,000. Thanks to the generosity of supportive friends and other donors, they met their goal in just one week. Dailey was shooting to raise $2,000 himself, but the 29 separate Scott Dailey, with buzzcut
M I •C C RO L I MCAL TI M E A •TE • donations that came in totaled $4,800-plus. He’d promised to get a buzzcut if the goal was met, and true to his word, got his obliging wife to give him a haircut. Dailey told the donors, “You may be assured that your gifts are making a real difference for families who desperately need help.”
five children was born before he departed for transport ship duty in World War II. After the war, the Coles eventually settled in Redwood City, where he became a Redwood City policeman, according to that firstborn child, also called Ted Cole, 77. His siblings are Kingston Cole, Ronda Jensen, Marty Cole and Dan Cole, at 65 the youngest child. Once the Cole kids were just about launched from the nest, Millie went to Shelter-in-place restriccollege to get a teaching tions just couldn’t keep credential and taught friends and family from for 11 years at Selby wishing Millie Price Lane School. Her husCole a happy birthday on band was a member of her 99th. They gave her the Optimist Club and a surprise party, or more she joined when women accurately, a surprise were allowed in, evenbirthday parade as more tually becoming the first than 70 cars and other vewoman governor of the hicles rolled by her RedPacific Central District wood Avenue home May (2006-07). (Ted passed Millie Cole 22 to salute an extraordiaway in 2008.) It’s hard nary Redwood City resident and still-active to think of anyone who more embodies the volunteer. idea of optimism more than Millie, friends Kathie Fosgett, a friend from church, say. She gave up driving two years ago but got dozens and dozens of friends to send gets around in a motorized scooter that she birthday cards which began arriving the calls “Buddy,” riding to the Music in the day before Cole’s birthday. She and her Park concerts so she can help at her Optihusband delivered flowers and Millie’s mist Club’s booth. She assists at Optimist favorite cheesecake from Key Market that bingo games in Santa Clara to raise money morning. Meanwhile, one of Cole’s sons for youth scholarships. She was honored got her to come outdoors, on a ruse, just by the Sequoia Awards program as the outbefore the first parade cars came into view. standing individual for 2010-11. “She’s been Fellow Optimist Club members John But- a real inspiration for a lot of people,” Butterterfield and Ralph Garcia got the cars field says—and she got to hear that from a lined up in the city’s Community Activities host of them on her drive-by birthday. Building parking lot to get the procession on the move. Born in Salt Lake City, Millie was 18 when she came to San Francisco in the late 1930s where she worked as a dancer. She met her future husband, Ted Cole, when both were performing with the famed Billy Rose Aquacade at the 1940 World’s Fair on Treasure Island (he swam, she danced at poolside). They married and the first of June 2020 ·
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Online Programing for June 2020 Library Events Calendar: https://www.redwoodcity.org/departments/library/events Mondays at 11:00 AM Cuentos en Casa Ongoing events for Kids: Bibliotecarios en casa presentan cuentos, canciones, y https://www.redwoodcity.org/departments/library/ más. Vea la serie completa en nuestra página web. Librarcovid-19-service/for-kids ians at home present stories, songs, and more. Watch the full series on our webpage. Take the 2020 Summer Learning Challenge Sign ups begin June 1 online: redwoodcity.org/sumTuesdays at 11:00 AM merlearning. Check our website often for the latest and Stories from your Community greatest information about Summer Learning activities, Our pre-recorded series where we invite different members performances and workshops for Kids! Teens! and Adults! of the community to read stories. Playlists in this series are Sponsored by the Friends of the Redwood City Library released periodically. Visit us online to find the latest Stories Bookstore. From Your Community. ONLINE EVENTS FOR KIDS Music Play Patrol: Musical Storytelling Tuesday, June 16 at 12:30 PM Tuesday, June 16 at 1:30 PM Wednesday, June 17 at 12:30 PM Wednesday, June 17 at 1:30 PM This program features fairytales, dragons, and superheroes. Using different instruments and sound processors, participants will learn how musical elements like rhythm, dynamics, and tempo can be used to represent characters in stories. Mr. SHAP—Magician with a twist! Tuesday, June 23 at 4:00 PM Tuesday, June 23 at 6:30 PM Wednesday, June 24 at 4:00 PM Wednesday, June 24 at 6:30 PM Mr. SHAP stands for Supper Happenings Always Possible! Mr. Shap is a balloon artist and Magician that will entertain with mystifying magic. 28 · CLIMATE · June 2020
Wednesdays at 10:00 AM Through June 17 Little Learners Remote! Children from 3-5 years of age are invited to enjoy stories, songs, and crafts. Wednesdays & Fridays at 11:00 AM Stories and Play A pre-recorded video series features RCPL Librarians reading all the stories you love. Join us for Stories and Play! Wednesdays at 3:00 PM Through June 17 Book Club for Grades 3-5 Books provided Free along with weekly chats and fun activities!
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Los Miercoles a las 4:00 PM Hasta el 17 de junio Club de Lectura para grados 3-5 Encuentros semanales para niños y niñas en grados 3 a 5 con libros gratuitos, conversación, y actividades divertidas. Spanish Book Club for children in grades 3-5. Meets weekly. Free books, chats, and fun activities.
Thursday, June 25, 7pm
Thursdays at 10:00 AM Bilingual Storytime – Live! Live English/Spanish bilingual storytime with Armando through Zoom. Hora del cuento bilingüe en inglés/español en vivo con Armando a través de Zoom.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Saturdays at 11:00 AM
Online Live & Aloud – Author Lisa Sniderman
Join us for a multi-media presentation introducing author Lisa Sniderman’s new memoir A Light in the Darkness: Transcending Chronic Illness through the Power of Art and Attitude. RSVP for required Zoom login: rkutler@redwoodcity.org
ESL Conversation Group
Meet with other non-native English language speakers to develop speaking fluency and explore new vocabulary. Our meetings are one hour-long via Zoom.
Thursdays at 11:00 AM June 11 – August 13, Except July 2 Yoga 4 Kids
Los jueves a las 5:00 PM
Thursdays at 3:00 PM, Through June 18 Awesome Readers Book Club for 2nd Graders Weekly meetings for voracious early readers. Books provided free along with chats and fun activities.
Únase al club de lectura en español y disfrute de un momento relajado para leer en la mejor compañia. Libros gratuitos a través de la plataforma Hoopla. Join the Spanish book club and enjoy some downtime to read and relax with the best company. Free books provided via Hoopla.
Libros y Café
ONLINE EVENTS FOR ADULTS Climate Action Discussion Group Thursday, June 11, 11am We meet via Zoom/phone on the second Thursday of the month to discuss our changing climate and the constructive actions we can take in response as individuals, families, and communities. Each session has a recommended book, article, or film, but no prior preparation is required to participate in the discussion. June’s recommended reading is Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. This classic dystopian novel is available on Hoopla as an ebook or comic book adaptation, and can also be requested in print via Zip Books. Please contact fpotter@ redwoodcity.org for meeting login details.
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HISTORY by Jim Clifford•
The Hunt is on for Union Cemetery’s Tombstones Redwood City’s historic Union Cemetery wants its missing headstones back, even if swiped – return them with no questions asked. Kathy Klebe, a member of the cemetery association’s board, issued a public appeal for the return of the tombstones. She promised they will be installed properly, adding she would be “forever grateful.” Some of the headstones may have been taken by people who thought it “would be cool to have real headstone from the 1800s.” Others motives may have been less frivolous. Some families may have removed the stones for safekeeping. “We think there may be headstones lying around in people’s garages that have been forgotten.” She told Climate that she was “very disappointed that so far” no one has come forward. Homeless Headstones Missing headstones can pop up just about anywhere. Eight years ago local historian John Edmonds wrote a story about a stone found in a little park on Main Street that had the initials “G.B.” on it. His best guess was that the stone marked the final resting place of Genevieve Badie who was buried in Union Cemetery in 1904. He conceded that there is “no way of knowing for certain” that “G.B.” stands for Genevieve Badie. Badie’s family lived in Redwood City at 912 Arguello St., according to the census. Her father was a laborer and her brother was a hod carrier,
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papers reported the cemetery was in a “disgraceful state, fences torn down and children playing around the gravesites.” Even the statue of the Union soldier that stands over the Grand Army of the Republic plot was a target. By 1983, the year Union Cemetery was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, the statue had been destroyed three times. someone who carried bricks to bricklayers on a construction site. Historic Union Cemetery Association President Ellen Crawford says the marker has been returned to the cemetery but she, like Edmonds, is not sure it belongs to Badie. “I’m skeptical,” she said. “As I recall, Genevieve’s family was very poor and I’m not sure they purchased a marker. And there are several other unmarked graves with those initials.” Klebe said many headstones and markers disappeared in the latter part of the last century when the cemetery was in “a disheveled state” from neglect. It is difficult to understand that the lovingly cared for cemetery, which dates back to 1859, was in such a state of disrepair that in 1966 the Redwood City Tribune supported moving the remains elsewhere so a park could be built. The park was a good idea because the cemetery was no longer “attractive,” the newspaper said in an editorial. In retrospect, the Tribune’s stand does not seem all that shocking when one considers the cemetery’s history. In 1911 news-
Soldier’s Rightful Place Thanks to concerned citizens, the statue was replaced and today stands at parade rest over a plot that has 46 headstones honoring Civil War veterans. The last headstone in the GAR plot was placed in 1984 to mark the final resting place of James Baxter, who was wounded at Gettysburg. Baxter died in 1936 and was buried at the foot of the statue. His place was unmarked until relatives put up the stone. The highlight of the cemetery’s year is the Memorial Day ceremony, called off this year because of the coronavirus. The observance usually attracts hundreds of people, many drawn by the event’s “firing of the anvil,” a Gold Rush tradition. One anvil is placed on another and a small charge set between and lighted, sending the top one high in the air. Not loud enough to wake the dead, but enough to get your attention.
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